Nuclear War Again?

I haven’t thought seriously about the reality of nuclear war since 1988.  That year I moved from New York City to a small New England town.  And one day the town fire alarm was sounded.  I had never heard anything like it and I assumed it was an air raid siren.  Luckily a neighbor straightened out my thinking and told me these were a regular feature of town life.  But for just a minute I was desperately trying to figure out where the kids were and where was the best place to bring them for safety.  Never in my life before did I ever worry about nuclear war, nor since.  And once the Soviet Union imploded it no longer seemed like something that could happen.  No one would be stupid enough to push us into nuclear war.

Well, that was before I imagined Joe Biden as president.  Now I’m not saying Joe Biden is brave enough to start a nuclear war with the Russians.  Joe talks tough in speeches about going toe to toe with Putin.  But in reality, I think he’d be afraid being in the same room alone with the Russian.

He’s not brave enough to start a nuclear war but he’s stupid enough to start one accidentally.  Putin seems to be an egoist and Biden has said some provocative things about him.  If things go poorly for Putin and his back is against the wall, he might decide to settle scores with those he hates.  Now that is a sobering thought.

This is just something I thought about today, not as something that has me frightened, but as something surprising.  I guess in some sense I stopped thinking that nuclear war was still something to worry about.  And now I don’t think that way any more.  And maybe I should never have stopped worrying about it.  Truthfully, nuclear weapons are a balancing act.  And if that balance ever slips the probability they’ll be used goes from extremely low to fairly high very easily.  And when that happens who you have in charge of them becomes even more critical.  The judgement and reputation of the man with the nuclear football could be the difference between peace and destruction.  Would you want that man to be Dementia Joe?  I know I don’t.

I know one thing for sure.  It makes a lot of sense to live far away from large American cities, not only to avoid the crime and chaos they now represent for residents and neighbors but also because they’re on the target list for Russian and Chinese ICBMs.  This sounds slightly melodramatic and pessimistic but honestly, pessimism is now becoming the default setting when I think about our government.  The level of dishonesty and just plain stupidity it exhibits makes it the biggest threat to my family’s future.  So, I have to be pessimistic.  Let’s call it realistic instead.

When the election memes for 2024 are being thought up it wouldn’t be a bad idea to have one of those “Who’s answering the phone at 3 am at the White House?” commercials to remind the voters that Dopey Joe isn’t even sentient at 3 am.

So that’s what I was thinking about today.

Update

Apparently great minds think alike.  Read this.