A return of MAD?

I really try to stay with a lighthearted slant here, and even my bitching about some things are written with tongue firmly planted in my cheek but this scares the living shit out of me. I was saving this for an appropriate time but this being the 60th anniversary of the first use of an atomic bomb during wartime I thought this was a good a day as any to post it.

For those of you who don't remember the Cold War, let me tell you it was a scary time. But it was a lot simpler to live in and understand. It was easy to figure out who the bad guys were. It was "Us" and "Them" the 'Them' being the Soviet Union.

Thousands of thermonuclear warheads pointed at each other, on a hair-trigger with the only thing stopping the total annihilation of the planet was MAD, or "Mutually Assured Destruction", where if one country attacked the other, a complete and total retaliation with the full force of the other country's full nuclear arsenal was ensured.

In school we did the "Duck & Cover" drills, and we even had a huge air-raid siren on the roof of the school that went off every Wednesday at noon for the drill. I always did wonder though, "What if the Russians bombed at 12 o'clock?"

"We bomb at noon, Ivan! The Americans will think it's lunch!"

Now we don't know exactly who is the enemy, but there's one there and they're bound and determined to destroy our very way of life, and then I hear of this report on the radio a few nights ago. (No, it wasn't on Coast to Coast AM, but on a top-of-the-hour ABC news broadcast around 1 AM )

Apparently, Al Qaida has secreted several nuclear weapons in several major cities here in the US.

Go here for full report:

http://globalpolitician.com/articledes.asp?ID=988&cid=11&sid=62

But apparently only one politician has spoken out on this, and for the life of me I can't remember his name, but in an interview about this subject, he suggested that we nuke some of the Muslim holy sites like Mecca and Medina in response if Al Qaida detonates any devices here in the country. If anyone knows who this guy is, let me know. I couldn't find anything on Google this morning.

I'd have to agree with that sentiment. It's another Cold War all over again, but rapidly heating up to a what appears to me to be WWIII...

Not in the biblical sense, but it is a World War, and one that's beginning to spiral out of control. One where only one side will survive.

I've got to say this though. As far as I'm concerned we didn't start this war. But if anyone pops a nuke here, someone should pay. I really couldn't give a rat's ass if we turn half the Middle East into a giant sheet of glass.

Maybe MAD worked the last time, but would it work now? To be honest, I doubt it. Throughout the entire Cold War, we were dealing with rational and sane men on both sides for the most part. Now it's a lot different.

Would you call a sane man one who would strap explosives on himself and blow up a bunch of children riding a school bus? Or how about flying a airliner into a building filled with thousands of innocent people?

I sure as shit don't call that sane. Killing for God is sort of like fucking for virginity.

I miss the Soviet Union sometimes.

Ok, enough of this. I'll return to my silliness tomorrow, I promise, and do I have a bitch-and-a-half for tomorrow!

Copyright Thomas J Wolfenden