In a recent article (January 16, 2014) appearing online for NPR, writer Mark Memmot tells us another story of the downward spiral of the Air Force and its nuclear missile corps. This time it is the launch officers of the Malmstrom Air Force base in Montana. Where are ethics when we need them?
As the article states: “The investigation began into possible illegal drug use, and ended up widening into a cheating scandal. [According to the Air Force] officers took part in sharing answers in monthly proficiency tests or knew about the cheating.”
It must be understood that these are the missiles with nuclear warheads that have the ability to wipe out cities and millions of people – each. The officers assigned to the silos have huge responsibilities and the responsibility can be unleashed with the touch of a button.
Deadly Symbol
It is a trite expression that has been left over from something my generation once called “The Cold War,” but we really do have the ability to destroy the world a hundred – or is it a thousand times over? We have missiles here and Russia has them and China has them and Israel and India and Great Britain and France and who knows how many other countries? Then we have missiles to intercept other missiles. We have missiles in silos and in the sea and in the air and who knows, in space as well? The world is filled with people in silos with fingers on buttons and triggers.
Are these fingers connected to bodies that are drunk or stoned or high on heroine? Are these fingers connected to minds that are ill-prepared or so bored that they have stopped caring or are so filled with depression of their daily routines that they are disconnected from reality?
I shudder to answer my own questions. I can’t even “wax philosophical” about it. The idea that people who should be the most ready to handle a sequence of extremely serious and even catastrophic decisions may, at times, be the least ready calls for immediate intervention.
Ethical Intervention
We cannot change the madness of the world – at least not with this blog. We cannot ask the world to grow up and to destroy all of the weaponry held in silos and undersea and everywhere else. We can only be certain of how we behave and how seriously we take responsibility.
I am for second chances, it is true, but 34 officers who cheated on their examinations for an assignment of this magnitude cannot be excused. Re-train them for something else, but remove them immediately.
However, I would also call for other measures including ethical training in understanding the true responsibilities of the job.
I also well understand the intense boredom and the seeming meaninglessness of the assignment. Day after day, week after week, men and women in underground and isolated silos essentially do nothing except wait for phone calls that never come. It is extremely difficult for anyone to stay engaged and to stay committed to an assignment of that nature.
I would call upon the Air Force to address what can be done within the confines of reason to help those assigned to such work to find meaning in this job and even meaning in their lives. If the Air Force has failed in this regard then I feel they too have an ethical problem.
It seems clear that the drug abuse and cheating is emblematic of much larger problems. Unless the parameters of the job are changed, a fresh crop of officers will fall into the same patterns as the old crop of officers. To do nothing would be the most tragic situation of all. We cannot accept such a tragedy.
It seems odd to me to try and apply ethical standards to a person willing to sit for decades, ready to turn a key or push a button that will kill millions of innocent civilians. They have time to think about the act they are being asked to do. Is nuclear readiness an example of international terrorism or can that only be committed by some other country than ours?