I belong to the generation that had school drills for the Big One. Many of us can remember the look of terror in the eyes of our parents as we sat around the TV watching President Kennedy announce the “quarantine” of Cuba on October 7, 1962.
Will the world’s families once again feel that horrible terror?
(cross-posted on dKos)
Kennedy and Khrushchev were able to avoid Armageddon in the 60s, but the election of Ronald Reagan with his inflammatory “Evil Empire” rhetoric and “Star Wars” misadventures re-heated the Cold War. The world once again appeared to be on the “Eve of Destruction.”
I will always remember the 80s television mini-series “The Day After” and the sickening feeling in the pit of my stomach as I watched the scene where the ICBMs leave their Midwestern silos headed to destroy the Soviet Union.
When Mikhail Gorbachev became the leader of the USSR in 1985, Soviet-American relations improved, and over the next 15 years, and the chance of a nuclear apocalypse seemed to wane significantly. Those of us who grew up in the 50s and 60s rejoiced that our children would not know the same fear and anomie that was an ever-present part of our youth.
Two pieces published on the Web today take us into the future under a McCain-Palin administration when, once again, the end of the world as we know it becomes a real possibility.
Physicist Gordon Prather writes about the effects of a nuclear war based upon modern research, especially data gathered after the Chernobyl reactor meltdown. Why talk about such a morbid topic?
John McCain, his handpicked successor Sarah Palin and their neo-crazy coconspirators are hell-bent upon incorporating Georgia and Ukraine, both former Soviet republics, into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Since they all realize that could well require us to go to war with Russia, sooner or later, perhaps it’s time to revisit On Thermonuclear War, by Herman Kahn.
Especially if a President Palin subscribes to the views of her former Assembly of God pastor about The Last Days.
“I believe Alaska is one of the refuge states in the last days, and hundreds of thousands of people are going to come to the state to seek refuge and the church has to be ready to minister to them.”
Read more about the likelihood of thermonuclear war under a McCain-Palin White House and its impact in “On the Beach.”
McCain has been rattling the sabre against Iran as well as Russia. D. C. Examiner columnist begins “Time Machine: Bomb, bomb Iran,” with this matter-of-fact synopsis:
Feb. 26, 2009 – “Long before President McCain was elected,” the three-star general said, “he hinted at attacking Iran in songs and jokes. After the assault, he made his famous address. But we still need citizens to more fully appreciate the victorious details of Operation Bodacious Mayhem.”
The most senior officers in each of the armed services nodded, while the young officer inhaled deeply, then began his briefing. “Very well, sir. As we all know, soon after his inauguration, President McCain ordered the attack on Iran on Jan. 29, 2009.
“Carried out with support from Israel and Britain, it hit at least 10 targets with tactical nuclear weapons and nearly 800 other targets with conventional weapons.
It is difficult for the White House to say whether it destroyed an Iranian nuclear weapons program because intelligence agencies said it did not exist anyway. Approximately 350,000 civilians and military were said to be casualties.”
You’ll have to read the rest yourselves to catch the surprising ending.
The McCain-Palin ticket’s delight in war-mongering speeches and slogans is more than just a campaign appeal to xenophobes and ultra-nationalists. It foretells an escalation of the neo-con madness that has ruined America’s reputation and all but destroyed the U. S. economy. Now, like a wounded animal, an America led by John McCain is likely to assuage its wounded military pride by resorting to the unthinkable. Rather than using American power to lead the world toward peace and justice, McCain and Palin, and their neocon and End-Timer friends, will take us into a new Dark Ages.
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with Charlie Gibson – maybe it was just a synopsis -and just about drove off the highway when I heard how cavalierly she talked about having to go to war with Russia.
It’s like she doesn’t know the history of the last 60 years – or WWI for that mattter.
These people are crazy. Batshit Crazy.
They seem determined to have their Armageddon and have the rest of us eat it too. Even if they have to create it themselves.
If we want to really save the world we have to decide from what. Both delight in war propaganda but we should know by now the Illuminati runs all of that shit in spite of what the “actors” in the dog and pony show say.
Modern technology though gives up equally destructive means in genetically engineered disease, foods and nano science. Globalization marches on giving us hints as to the future dystopian world. There are many such sci-fi movies like The Matrix, Gattica, Running Man, They Live and Mad Max.
What kind of desk to we hide under now?
A spectacle without consequences. They just don’t get the fact that when they rain their bombs down, there are human beings cowering underneath those bombs. Or maybe they understand it, and they like it. Neither possibility reflects well on their character.
Reminds me of that great scene late in “Lawrence of Arabia”. The light cavalry of the Arab Revolt are riding in the desert at night, parallel to Allenby’s conventional forces, who are using typical WWII massed-artillery tactics to pound their way up the coast through Jerusalem to Damascus. The Arabs,who have never seen anything like it, are awestruck by the constant pounding and flickering that they see out on the horizon. Sharif Ali (Omar Sharif) shakes his head in sympathy.
“God Help the men who are lying underneath that.”
Lawrence, his brains blasted away by having recently been captured and gang-raped by the Turks, turns to Sharif Ali and stares blankly.
“They’re Turks,” he says, as if it is self-evident that this is what they deserve.
Sharif Ali shakes his head in vehement disagreement.
“God Help them. God Help them.”