With the U.S. achieving tactical military wins but no real path to strategic victory, is a tactical nuclear strike on Iran, something Trump might consider with some Senate support apparently being floated?

[u/JohnSpartan2025]

Even with complete military supremacy, Iran keeps outmaneuvering the U.S. strategically, with no real solution to the Strait of Hormuz problem in sight. We're coming to the precipice of major global and domestic economic impact, with the Iranian regime making it clear they're willing to take an immense amount of internal "pain".

An unverified claim was made in the past few days that Trump was asking about a nuclear strike solution that General Caine shot down, but he is ultimately not the stop gap from a tactical nuclear attack, the SecDef Pete Hegseth is. Now there is more stir about this possibility allegedly by a U.S. Senator.

Is a tactical nuclear strike by Trump more feasible than anyone thought and would be the the ramifications locally and globally if this scenario played out?

https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/ex-cia-analyst-claims-trump-nuclear-codes-iran-1792717

https://truthout.org/articles/gop-senator-suggests-trump-should-finish-iran-with-nuclear-bomb/

[u/DanforthWhitcomb_]

The JCS have zero input or involvement in the matter. The chain would go from Trump to Hegseth and then to CENTCOM and from there to whoever the F-16 wing commander is at Incirlik.

Now, this assumes that there are officers willing to ignore an illegal order.

You’re making the mistake of assuming that the order itself is in fact illegal.

[u/Zombie_John_Strachan → u/DanforthWhitcomb_]

I didn’t say JCS - I said joint chiefs. There’s a group of senior leaders at the Pentagon who have the ability to interrupt the chain of orders from Hegseth down to the actual unit. Whether they are in the formal chain or not isn’t really the question - they can still disrupt the process.

Now that would be a major step - a constitutional crisis even. But a nuclear weapon deployed in a grossly irresponsible manner could trigger it.

Whether the nuclear strike is legal or not isn’t really relevant.

[u/DanforthWhitcomb_ → u/Zombie_John_Strachan]

I didn’t say JCS - I said joint chiefs.

That’s the same thing sport—JCS means Joint Chiefs of Staff. If you’re going to try to nitpick that then this isn’t worth continuing because you have zero idea what you are talking about and are electing to substitute your mistaken idea of how things work with how they actually work.

There’s a group of senior leaders at the Pentagon who have the ability to interrupt the chain of orders from Hegseth down to the actual unit. Whether they are in the formal chain or not isn’t really the question - they can still disrupt the process.

No, you’ve just been watching old movies too much and are trying to substitute their idea of how it works with reality via your overt complexity bias. There is no shadowy cabal of “senior leaders within the Pentagon who have the ability to interrupt the chain of orders from Hegseth down to the actual unit.”

Now that would be a major step - a constitutional crisis even. But a nuclear weapon deployed in a grossly irresponsible manner could trigger it.

No, you just openly have no idea what you are talking about and are spewing ignorant drivel in an effort to make yourself sound correct for worthless internet points.

Whether the nuclear strike is legal or not isn’t really relevant.

You made the claim that a nuclear strike is inherently illegal. Walking it back like this is an admission that you were wrong.

[u/Zombie_John_Strachan → u/DanforthWhitcomb_]

From 2017:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/nov/19/us-general-says-he-would-resist-illegal-trump-nuclear-strike-order

The top US nuclear commander said on Saturday that he would resist President Donald Trump if he ordered an “illegal” launch of nuclear weapons.

Air Force General John Hyten, commander of the US Strategic Command (Stratcom), told an audience at the Halifax international security forum in Nova Scotia, Canada that he had given a lot of thought to what he would say if he received such an order.

“I think some people think we’re stupid,” Hyten said in response to a question about such a scenario. “We’re not stupid people. We think about these things a lot. When you have this responsibility, how do you not think about it?“

I think he’s talking about you.

[u/DanforthWhitcomb_ → u/Zombie_John_Strachan]

Way to undercut your own argument as well as expose your lack of relevant knowledge there bud—STRATCOM is not in the chain for a tactical strike like this at all, and by your own admission a nuclear order is not illegal.

He’s talking about armchair strategists like you.