We’d all like to assume that Trump is just big talk. That this latest splurt from the Commander-in-Tweet is just part of his lifelong penchant for bluffing, and the worst that will come of it is more eye-rolling from U.S. allies and some added mistrust for U.S. diplomats.
But since he brought it up, wouldn’t it behoove our media to actually inform the populace what is connected to Trump’s big button? If we are lucky, it’s connected to a doorknob.
However, If H.R. McMaster hasn’t made such a move yet, that “button” is still connected to a whole bunch of these:
“A whole bunch” as in hundreds. That white dot shows the Hiroshima blast, and the red surrounding it is the explosive power of the W78 workhorse bomb that is currently fitted on 250 U.S. ICBMS. The Union of Concerned Scientists that created the image note that the W78 has a yield of at least 335 kilotons; Hiroshima was 14-15kt. And they say this about it:
It causes a mile-wide radioactive fireball and can destroy most buildings—and humans—in a circle about 4 miles wide.
Another warhead on land-based missiles is the W87 (300kt-475kt). This is approximately how many of those two warheads are perched atop missiles in silos in Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, North Dakota, and Nebraska:
Plus there are hundreds more warheads on submarines, warheads called W76 at 100 kilotons, and W88 at 475kt (31 times as powerful as the Hiroshima bomb). And the W80 (5-50kt for air-launched cruise missiles. And then there are the plane-dropped gravity bombs, the B61 with its dial-a-yield option, and the B83, tested as high as 1.2 megatons, 80 times more powerful than the Hiroshima bomb.
Whatever else can be said about Mr. Trump’s tough-guy talk, that button really is big. And it really is his to push.