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Comment by iorrus | Hacker News Reader

Seems like a rogue presidential order wouldn't get past the "war room at the Pentagon", they need to actually send the message to the silos.

I assume they are fully aware of the threat level and aren't going to level London on a Tuesday afternoon for no reason.

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Yeah. You might be court martialed afterwards, but there are plenty of links in the chain, down to the guys in the silos saying “but really?”.

I also find it an odd standard to treat nukes differently than any other military action. You think we don’t have enough traditional options to level London on a Tuesday afternoon? It seems like the President is either the CinC or he isn’t...

> You think we don’t have enough traditional options to level London on a Tuesday afternoon?

I actually don't think there are any that are feasible. Leveling a city the size of London is no small feat, and amassing the troops and weaponry required to carry it out seems like a complicated enough exercise that it would take longer than "Tuesday afternoon".

Not that I don't think it can be done, but just that moving a large traditional military apparatus, or even mustering enough conventional missiles to flatten an area that large seems like it would take far longer than that.

The "shock and awe" campaign waged on Baghdad might be similar in scale within about an order of magnitude, and it certainly took a heck of a lot longer than an afternoon, although the goal was never to level the city in its entirety.

Why flatten? Just a few supersonic booms near ground level would shatter much glass. The facades may be rated for storms and thunder, but the pressure gradients of low flying supersonic jets?

Nukes level London in 5 minutes (and the launch alone initiates MAD from China and Russia before they realise what the target it)

That's not enough time for the VP and cabinet to 25th amendment and cancel the orders.

Is that so? I heard there are cruise missiles able to do the job. No need for ICBM glaring in infrared and the visible spectrum all over the skies.

And that also elevates the risk since countries that might launch nuclear arms at the US understand that needing to second-guess the command to launch our weapons gives them an advantage.

I imagine a second-strike is going to get a lot less hesitation than a first strike without obvious provocation. If nothing else, there's no harm and potentially an immense benefit in delaying a first strike to get confirmation, whereas there is a time crunch if enemy missiles are inbound.

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