I know the date it happens. Anybody not wearing 2 million sun block is going to have a bad day. You think you are safe! You are already dead, him, you, everybody! Sara Conner, Terminator 2 Judgement Day

Mr. President, we are rapidly approaching a moment of truth for ourselves as humans and the life of our nation. General Buck Turgidson, Dr. Strangelove

I grew up in the latter part of the cold war between the US and the Soviet Union. Before then, there were some very tense moments where nuclear war became a distinct possibility, the most tense being the Cuban Missile Crisis. After the end of the Vietnam War, Presidents Carter and Reagan took steps toward rapprochement with the Soviet Union and the two nations entered into several arms control treaties such as the SALT 1 and the INF.

Today it seems we are heading into a new cold war with Russia. If that is not bad enough, many of the most belligerent politicians want one with China as well. First there was the whole Russia-gate episode which lasted for two years. Although, their never was any evidence shown to the American people that Russia hacked the DNC servers, various intelligence officials signed off on a report that it certainly was Russia. Of course, many of those same officials were certain that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. Any evidence in support of their report should be made public.

A couple of months ago, President Trump announced that the US was pulling out of the INF treaty which was signed by President Reagan and Gorbachev. It seems to me to be a foolhardy action which I’m sure was the idea of John Bolton, Trump’s National Security Advisor. Nominally, the US defense budget is $750 billion but when you add in related agencies it totals near $980 billion. Russia’s defense budget is a piddling $70. However, recently, Putin has announced a whole series of new semi sonic missiles which are capable of evading US missile defense and can take out an aircraft carrier quite easily. Now as General Turgidson would tell you, you just can’t trust those Ruskies. However, it seems that they are getting much more bang for the ruble than the US is.

Unfortunately, our present national security personnel such as John Bolton, Mike Pompeo, and Gina Haspel are reminiscent of those actors portraying the idiots in the war room in the movie Dr. Strangelove. While the left used to be solidly anti-war, the whole Russia-gate affair has a lot of the progressives sounding just like neocons.

At this point, there can be no sane person who thinks that a nuclear exchange is a winnable proposition. Our leaders should follow the example of Presidents Carter and Bush and take steps toward peace and against indefinite cold war. A good first step would be to remove all troops from Syria and not even consider intervening in Venezuela. We need to avoid situations where Russian, US, and Chinese planes are operating in the same area. Also, maybe it is time for trilateral arms control negotiations.



