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Who Should Manage the Nuclear Weapons Complex, Civilians Or Military?

Posted by Soulskill on from the can't-we-just-outsource-it dept.

Lasrick writes "For the first time since 1946, Congress is seriously debating whether the U.S. nuclear weapons complex should be under civilian or military control. That the article is in the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists is significant, as it was many of the scientists who founded BAS who argued for civilian control in the wake of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. They believed that atomic energy was too destructive, and the military too secretive, which would possibly thwart scientific discovery and erect a major obstacle to international control and cooperation. The article talks about how management has changed over the decades and explains the discussion that needs to happen before Congress acts."

7 of 183 comments (clear)

  1. Frying pan or fire? by EdZ · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Who do you trust less: the military, or a whatever corporation would be set up to run it? Personally, I'd take the one where people of whatever level of management can be held accountable by court-martial.

    1. Re:Frying pan or fire? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

      Held accountable, like all those generals and other high level officer who were held accountable for Abu Ghraib? Oh, wait, that was just a few bad apples at the bottom of the totem pole, my mistake.

    2. Re:Frying pan or fire? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Who do you trust less: the military, or a whatever corporation would be set up to run it? Personally, I'd take the one where people of whatever level of management can be held accountable by court-martial.

      We are not in a military dictatorship.
      Control of nuclear weapons should be entirely with the civilian government, even if that government is less than perfect.
      We vote for our civilian leaders, we don't vote for the military.

    3. Re:Frying pan or fire? by PRMan · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Corporate executives can be tried under criminal law

      Link?

      --
      Peter predicted that you would "deliberately forget" creation 2000 years ago...
    4. Re:Frying pan or fire? by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Rare, but it does happen, remember Bernie Madoff?

      and Bernie Ebbers, Kenneth Lay, Jeffrey Skilling, Andrew Fastow, etc, etc.
      Now show me a list of generals court-martialed over the last few decades.
      The idea that generals are more accountable than CEOs is absurd.

  2. Civilian control by mosb1000 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Isn't the military supposed to be under civilian control already? Have they gone rogue and I just haven't heard of it until now?

  3. Who should wear the One Ring? by jdavidb · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Noone. It should be destroyed in the fires of Mt. Doom.

    --
    Secession is the right of all sentient beings.