Honest, paywall-free news is rare. Please support our boldly independent journalism with a donation of any size.
The missile launch officers failed to grasp
the ratio of death and destruction to the simple act
of following orders and turning a key.
And they were caught cheating.
All they were after was a good grade, to help
them climb the slippery walls of promotion,
so that one day they could be the ones to give the orders.
It isn’t as if they were the only ones who ever cheated.
It was something of a tradition among the launch officers,
something akin to “Don’t ask, don’t tell,” or turn the other way.
Cheating may have been wrong, but it wasn’t a moral outrage.
While suspended for cheating, they would not be able to launch
their nuclear-armed missiles, capable of ending civilization,
as they were ready to do any moment, day or night,
when they were on duty and received an order to launch.
What is a moral outrage is that we train and expect these young officers
to send their nuclear-armed missiles flying when commanded to do so,
to initiate oblivion with the turn of a key.
David Krieger
March 2014
A terrifying moment. We appeal for your support.
In the last weeks, we have witnessed an authoritarian assault on communities in Minnesota and across the nation.
The need for truthful, grassroots reporting is urgent at this cataclysmic historical moment. Yet, Trump-aligned billionaires and other allies have taken over many legacy media outlets — the culmination of a decades-long campaign to place control of the narrative into the hands of the political right.
We refuse to let Trump’s blatant propaganda machine go unchecked. Untethered to corporate ownership or advertisers, Truthout remains fearless in our reporting and our determination to use journalism as a tool for justice.
But we need your help just to fund our basic expenses. Over 80 percent of Truthout’s funding comes from small individual donations from our community of readers, and over a third of our total budget is supported by recurring monthly donors.
Truthout has launched a fundraiser to add 500 new monthly donors in the next 10 days. Whether you can make a small monthly donation or a larger one-time gift, Truthout only works with your support.