Sunday, October 02, 2022

World War IV

By this reasoning, the "Cold War" was World War III. The threat to America was deemed much more imminent, and we were almost daily reminded of it. Even, as I said, consumer items like radios that came with symbols for where to tune for CONELRAD information in case of nuclear attack on the country.   

I'm quite serious about this:  you people have no idea what a "credible threat of nuclear war" was like.  Bombers circled constantly waiting for a "go" signal (see, e.g., "Fail Safe" or "Dr. Strangelove"), until ICBM's replaced bombers.  And then men sat in silos waiting to turn keys for decades before arms treaties made their jobs unnecessary.

Don't start to tell me we are in "World War III" because Putin is losing in Ukraine and his army is revealed for the paper tiger it always was.  Until the Berlin Wall came down NATO was prepared to start a war with the USSR at any moment. Jimmy Carter approved "neutron bombs" that would destroy soldiers (and civilians) with heavy radiation but low yield explosions in order to make their usage in battlefield conditions (i.e., the cities of Europe) more acceptable.  And that was in the late '70's.

Putin is a punk compared to the USSR we feared (rightly or wrongly) from Stalin to Gorbachev.

Honestly, these people bleating about "World War III is upon us!" are historical ignoramuses (yes, I know some respected experts are sounding the alarm.  Color me unalarmed.)  And a "second civil war"?  Which state is going to form an army and secede again?  Where is the Ft. Sumter of this battle going to be?  Are the soldiers going to be the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers, the ones saying Trump could have made them a militia with just his mind?  (I'm serious; that's reportedly the defense they'll be mounting in court tomorrow morning.) The same ones who brought arms to D.C. and then chickened out about using them because Trump didn't "authorize" them to shoot up the Capitol and seize it by even more violent means? (And by "authorize" they meant there would be no consequences for their actions. Brave, brave Sir Robins, one and all.)  

Don't make me laugh.

No comments:

Post a Comment