Another reason the Alamo Syndrome will not happen- the US military won’t be defeated by the Taliban, even when they seem hopelessly outnumbered. One spec ops squad can take on 200 Taliban and win. The only way the Taliban would be able to kill 20,000 US personnel is if they used a tactical nuke, which, knowing their lack of sophistication, would likely wind up defeating the Taliban by itself, never mind the fact that Obama would probably cave to the overwhelming evidence to unload 24 Trident II D-5′s on them in retaliation for using a nuke on our troops.

As for the rogue Ohio Class scenario, it’s going to take more than just the Captain and the XO going along with it to work. You’ll also need the Weapons and the Operations Officers to sign off on the act. Weapons because he has to actually launch the missiles, and OPS because it would constitute an unauthorized launch of nuclear weapons, which would justify the OPS officer relieving both the CO and XO of their command and declaring himself to be Acting CO.