re: #58 The Yankee

Told you guys I know people that can’t comprehend why we did’t nuke Vietnam.

They are numbers of people who seriously want us to nuke every other country in the Middle East. But do not understand how nuclear fall out would affect Israel, or just don’t care. These people are dead sober, some of them are Jewish. Most of them are adults, most have graduated High School and even college. None of this bother me till i realized how serious they were and now I have found out that one of these people have gotten elected. (That said the House is full of nuts on both sides)

I always think that maybe this is just their persona the face they show to get elected that they are smarter behind the scenes.

Before the People’s Republic of China got nukes, they were putting out stories almost constantly about how they weren’t afraid; the subways of Beijing were quite sufficient to blunt the impact, and anyhow, China had lots of people.

Then came the big day. They drilled a mile deep and put their bomb down in that hole and everybody assembled to see if instruments could detect the blast up there on the surface. The clock ticked to the appointed second, and nothing.

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DUST!!!! The desert bounced. Their feet bounced under them. Oh, shit!

And from that day on, there has been no more silly talk out of that corner of the world.

We, too, know better. Those with the final responsibility, apparently, get good old fear of God briefings. They get film of tests from back when, perhaps. There are institutional safeguards as well. When Nixon was twisting in the winds of impeachment, the JCS issued instructions that any military orders must go strictly through channels, and no one, absolutely no one, was to act on any order that didn’t go through channels, no matter who it came from. {unspoken but there between the lines, and most particularly not if it came from Nixon.}

And when Khrushchev ordered the Soviet Strategic Rocket Forces to attack the U.S. over the Cuban missile blockade (he did give the order), his SRF officers told him he cannot do that. He replied, but why not? We win, easily. They replied, well, that’s what we told you, because that’s what you wanted to hear. But in reality, if we do this, it will be the end of Mother Russia. You cannot issue that order.

And not long after, he was replaced.

It is our responsibility to elect leaders who understand the gravity of nukes. And if we fail in that responsibility, reality will hold us to account with our lives.