By Diane Russell, Special to the
BDN
Posted May 18, 2017, at 10:06 a.m.
When I was 8
years old, another rural Maine girl just two years older than me made
international headlines when she had the audacity to write the Soviet premier and ask him if he was going
to go to war against the United States. When her letter went
around the world, Maine’s “fearless girl,” Samantha Smith, created space for
world leaders to negotiate a de-escalation of the Cold War. The courage she
showed resulted in three decades of nuclear arms control with what is now
Russia, including treaties to reduce the number of nuclear weapons.
President
Donald Trump’s erratic behavior, Twitter tirades and general instability has followed
him off the campaign trail and into the White House, jeopardizing the relative
progress we have made to reduce the dangers posed by nuclear weapons. Despite
the U.S. intelligence community’s reports that Russia interfered in the
election to swing it in Trump’s favor, tensions between
these two nuclear-armed nations remain worryingly high. Moreover, Trump’s rhetoric and posturing toward North Korea are
increasing the risk of nuclear conflict on the Korean peninsula. A war with
North Korea would be catastrophic.
With that in
mind, Maine’s own Stephen King recently sent out a pointed tweet: “That this
guy has his finger on the nuclear trigger is worse than any horror story I ever
wrote.”
That
this guy has his finger on the nuclear trigger is worse than any horror story I
ever wrote.
I couldn’t
agree more.
Trump’s sole
control of the United States nuclear arsenal is worse than any nightmare King
could turn into a novel. But the real danger lies in the fact he can launch
thousands of our nuclear weapons within the time it takes to order a cup of
coffee — and there are no checks and balances in place stop him.
The framers of
our Constitution purposefully gave the legislative branch of government the
power to declare war because, as James Madison put it, the executive was not
“ safely to be trusted with it.” American
democracy is built on a system of checks and balances, ensuring that no one
entity retains absolute power. But in a shocking disregard for this principle,
ultimate authority over whether nuclear weapons are used rests solely with the president.
It takes
approximately five minutes to launch a nuclear weapon.
Once the president gives the order to launch, the Pentagon and everyone down
the chain of command must comply with the commander-in-chief’s directive. Short
of disobeying a direct order or an outright coup, no mechanism exists as a
stopgap on this power.
This is, at
its core, completely undemocratic. The decision to use nuclear weapons should
be undertaken only with the utmost caution and not left up to any single
individual, let alone one so erratic.
Growing alarm
over this very real possibility isn’t isolated, and it isn’t occurring in a
vacuum. Earlier this month, former nuclear commanders around the world launched a crisis group to serve as a
“shadow security council” in order to advise world leaders in reducing the
growing danger of a nuclear conflict. In January, The Bulletin of the Atomic
Scientists moved the Doomsday Clock, which signals how close humanity is to
destruction, closer to midnight. And former Secretary of
Defense Bill Perry, who oversaw the U.S. nuclear arsenal for decades and played
a supporting role in the Cuban Missile Crisis, continues expressing his alarm over the skyrocketing risks of
a nuclear exchange.
Several
members of Congress also have taken note of the great power that is vested in
the executive branch when it comes to nuclear weapons. In February, U.S. Sen.
Ed Markey, D-Massachusetts, and U.S. Rep. Ted Lieu, D-California, introduced
the Restricting First Use of Nuclear Weapons Act,
which would prevent any president from launching nuclear weapon in a
pre-emptive first strike without congressional authorization. The legislations
is backed by at least 500,000 Americans who signed a petition calling on all
members of Congress to co-sponsor it.
We have an
opportunity to write a new page in the American history books for the courage
of Maine leaders in reducing the threat of nuclear weapons. Let Stephen King
write the horror stories. If U.S. Sens. Susan Collins and Angus King co-sponsor
this common-sense legislation, they would be acting to uphold Samantha Smith’s
legacy of preventing nuclear war.
Diane Russell
served eight years in the Maine House of Representatives. She currently serves
as the national security political director at Women’s Action for New
Directions. Follow her on Twitter: @MissWrite.
http://bangordailynews.com/2017/05/18/opinion/contributors/no-president-especially-trump-should-have-sole-the-authority-to-use-nuclear-weapons/ printed
on May 27, 2017
Donations can be sent
to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD
21218. Ph: 410-323-1607; Email: mobuszewski [at] verizon.net. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/
"The master class
has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles.
The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject
class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their lives."
Eugene Victor Debs
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