How a nuclear attack on the U.S. might unfold, step by step

This article extends the faulty yet widely-accepted premise that only the US President can approve a nuclear strike. As the book "The Doomsday Machine - confessions of a nuclear war planner" by Daniel Ellsberg makes it plain, highly ranked officers (for example, the commander of Pacific Fleet) can issue a nuclear strike without approval from the President (or anyone else for that matter). This has been the case since Eisenhower's days.

Sometimes I just don't need to click the link!