Air Force major loses his job as a missle launcher,

Harold L. Hering had the sheer audacity to ask The Forbidden Question

You might think such a question - the sanity of a president who gives a nuclear launch order - would require some extra scrutiny, but Major Hering's inconvenient query put a spotlight on the fact that the most horrific decision in history could be executed in less than fifteen minutes by one person with no time for second-guessing.

"It bothers me immensely that the only area there is not a check and balance is the one that could literally result in the end of the world," he told Radiolab. "That seems strange to me."

The nuclear fail-safe protocols for executing commands are entirely concerned with the president's identity, not his sanity. The president alone authorizes a nuclear launch and the two-man rule does not apply to him

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