First finger could be taken off the button

UNITED STATES: Congress is to review US President Donald Trump’s power to launch a nuclear strike, the first time the commander-in-chief’s control over the US nuclear arsenal has been questioned in such a manner in more than 40 years.

The review will be led by Bob Corker, who chairs the Senate foreign relations committee and who has been one of Trump’s most strident Republican critics. Last month he said that Trump’s reckless rhetoric could set the US ‘‘on the path to World War III’’.

US allies are trying to gauge whether Trump would be willing to use a nuclear weapon against North Korea.

In August he said that threats from Pyongyang would be met with ‘‘fire and fury like the world has never seen’’. Weeks later Kim Jong-un claimed to have tested a hydrogen bomb.

Authority to order the use of a US nuclear weapon sits in the hands of the president alone, and Trump can order an unprovoked first strike without a congressional declaration of war. When the president travels, a military aide accompanies him with the ‘‘nuclear football’’, a briefcase containing launch codes and attack options.

‘‘A number of members both on and off our committee have raised questions about the authorities of the legislative and executive branches with respect to warmaking, the use of nuclear weapons and conducting foreign policy overall,’’ Corker said.

It would be the first time since 1976 that the Senate committee or its counterpart in the House of Representatives ‘‘have looked specifically at the authority and process for using nuclear weapons’’, Corker added.

In January the Democrats introduced legislation in Congress that would end the president’s ability to launch a first strike. Senator Edward Markey, one of the authors of the proposal, said: ‘‘Nuclear war poses the gravest risk to human survival. Yet President Trump has suggested that he would consider launching nuclear attacks against terrorists.’’

He added: ‘‘By maintaining the option of using nuclear weapons first in a conflict, US policy provides him with that power.

‘‘In a crisis with another nuclear-armed country, this policy drastically increases the risk of unintended nuclear escalation.’’

– The Times

PHOTO: REUTERS A military aide carrying the ‘‘nuclear football’’ containing launch codes and attack options boards the Marine One helicopter on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, DC. The aide accompanies the US president whenever he travels.