Leaving opportunities for a final decision to the President personally is not a sufficient justification. This is determined by the fact that the country’s President is an ordinary person who is prone to hasty decisions. Readers can learn about this from the podcast, where the following is said about Truman: “then he hears about the accidents and he hears about the women and children, and suddenly it becomes a burden” (Radiolab, 17:30). Therefore, the system responsible for launching missiles should be under the authority of the military-industrial complex, which, considering the situation and modern technologies, will better assess the need to launch nuclear missiles. This structure will be opposed by Congress, which will have to represent the interests of ordinary citizens. This system will be more rational for other actors since such a tough decision will not lie on one person. Developing a close-calls prevention system is also necessary, but it is challenging to implement this since, based on the material “I wish I didn’t know that” such situations arise unintentionally. Sometimes it becomes a potential error of one cog in the system. Therefore, to prevent such situations, it is necessary to proceed to the process of complete disarmament for general world security.
The principle of humanism includes three main components – the differentiation of combatants and civilians, proportionality, and the avoidance of causing unnecessary suffering. The principle of differentiation of combatants and civilians dictates the obligation of the parties to the conflict to separate the peaceful civilian population from active participants in hostilities and limit the use of force exclusively against combatants. It is difficult to imagine a situation in which nuclear weapons can satisfy this principle. Even tactical nuclear bombs have a considerable radius of destruction and will almost inevitably affect the civilian population and military facilities.
This is one of the sides of the problem, which was also voiced in the podcast, “The nuclear parts of the bomb have to be in the possession of the civilians” (Radiolab, 18:42). I am strictly against this decision since the ban on nuclear weapons should be implemented at a more global level without involving civilians. This is because ordinary citizens are inherently a very heterogeneous mass with very different views on life and military conflicts. Modern propaganda methods can easily inspire people with a particular decision that is beneficial to the executive branch. In addition, when people are granted such a right, they automatically become participants in hostilities, which is not the right ethical decision.
Reference
Radiolab. (2017). Nukes. WNYC Studios. Web.