Nuke release authority at 2 star level for Iraq?

[Sikander]

Any use of nuclear weapons has to be cleared by the "National Command Authority", which IIRC is the President ("Lil' Georgie" Bush), the Vice President ("Shlong" Cheney) and the Secretary of Defense ("Rummy" Rumsfeld). There are (and especially were during the Cold War) of course standing contingency orders, but I don't see any reason whatsoever for them to have relaxed their standards at all from Cold War era standards, and in fact think that there are many fewer weapons and conditions where they might be deployed without NCA approval.

Lancer,

These days most U.S. Divisions are commanded by Brigadier (ie one star) Generals, while Brigades are usualy commanded by Colonels. Don't ask me why. Also, I strongly suspect your story about the Americans giving the Germans tactical nukes was misinterpreted. The tactical nukes were put into place in Germany etc. in order to show (as you said) our determination to go all out defending Germany if necessary. The rationale was that we would not allow the enemy to simply overrun our weapons, and would fire them in a use or lose situation.

[Joseph]

Originally posted by Sikander
Any use of nuclear weapons has to be cleared by the "National Command Authority", which IIRC is the President ("Lil' Georgie" Bush), the Vice President ("Shlong" Cheney) and the Secretary of Defense ("Rummy" Rumsfeld). There are (and especially were during the Cold War) of course standing contingency orders, but I don't see any reason whatsoever for them to have relaxed their standards at all from Cold War era standards, and in fact think that there are many fewer weapons and conditions where they might be deployed without NCA approval.

I have heard that Submarine can no longer launch without the release code to.

[Lancer]

axi, no you may not ask a question.

Jack, Col Hackworth said the low level release order was to immediatly counter any use of biological weapons. If a cloud of nasty stuff comes over a hill a nuke would go back over , within minutes, the other way kind of thing. In some ways it makes sense. If you are an Iraqi bio weapons unit commander, would you release your nasty stuff knowing a nuke would be on you in a very short while? Low level nuke release is a deterent that could save American/coalition lives. If the general in charge of the US division you just hit has to go up the chain to the president to get nuke release authority, then you have all day and part of the next to get away and sure, you launch your nasty.


Zkribbler, to the best of my knowledge they did go through with it. I believe they were US assets put under NATO control, or something like that, so we could get em back. In theory. Don't know if we have them back yet though, and the Germans know the French have nukes and are generally out of their minds...besides, remember Alsase/Loraine! Und Feurer, don't verget der Russians, erm I meant ahh, chancellor...

How do you spell feurer?

alva, if you're not an Iraqi I agree completely with your assessment.

Sikander, yeah I guess this Col Hakworth fellow was wrong about the 2 star bit. However he did mention one division that was commanded by a 2 star, don't recall what he said exactly.

Joseph, thasverintaresting.