End of an AV and an era...

[keeblercrumb]

To the extent you wondered at all, perhaps you assumed my AV was simply representative of the rocket in my pocket and I suppose, given a significant reduction in scale (or two), there is some vague resemblance.... but no... that actually is not it.

What it is, in reality, is an SS-24 ICBM, arguably the most dangerous weapon system ever developed by man. The deployment of this system was the primary American motivation for the Reagan-Gorbachev initiated Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (or START treaty). Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the program for riding the world of these and other monstrous systems on both sides, fell to the American Tax Payer… under the Nunn-Lugar act….

According to the April 9, 2008 press release last week by the US Government:

"FORT BELVOIR, Alexandria, VA – The Department of Defense’s Cooperative Threat Reduction (CTR) program successfully completed the elimination of final SS-24 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) and supporting system components in Perm, Russia…….

The SS-24 ICBM system consisted of 56 missiles; 14 silo launched variants and 42 rail-mobile launched missiles. Each SS-24 ICBM carried 10 independently targeted nuclear warheads…….”

Think about that…. 56 missiles, 42 of them in constant motion, capable of delivering 560 nuclear warheads…. with accuracy.. to any point on the globe….

I am, as they say, of an age. In my “age” we learned as young children in school to “duck and cover” in case of nuclear attack…. As I grew up, we all watched the “doomsday clock” click ever closer to what was almost universally accepted as the inevitable World War III….

And while the motivation for using these dread weapons may have been suspended with the fall of the Soviet Union, the missiles remained until several years ago… on “ready alert”.

So…. for this weapon system, which almost defined the category of Weapons of Mass Destruction…. It is truly goodbye……

The world is not saved….. As we speak many nations, including the US, Russia, China, etc.. are developing new “deterrents” even if it is not exactly clear who is being “deterred”.

But the world is a safer place because of our work here. These rockets can no longer be deployed… or sold…. or stolen….. or even just blow up on their own….

Just thought you might like to know.

And I will need a new AV

-KC

 

[S-Des]

Although that's good news, I'm sorry to say it's offset somewhat by the information I heard tonight that Russia was going to spend close to 200 Billion on a military buildup over the next few years. Everyone has the right to defend themselves, so I hope this time it's truly not something that will put us in conflict again. There is enough madness in the world right now.

 

[keeblercrumb]

Although that's good news, I'm sorry to say it's offset somewhat by the information I heard tonight that Russia was going to spend close to 200 Billion on a military buildup over the next few years. Everyone has the right to defend themselves, so I hope this time it's truly not something that will put us in conflict again. There is enough madness in the world right now.

Yeah.... funny about that build up stuff......

It is conventional wisdom we won the cold war by outspending the Soviet Union.... It is interesting to consider who would win that war today with Oil at $100+ a barrel... Too ad we are pissing billions away in Iraq.....

Hmmmm.

And, of course, our own marvelous foreign policy.... Wonder why Russia would feel paranoid? Could it be NATO expanding all around their borders?

And what was the purpose of NATO again? And why isn't Russia a member now?

And my favorite... the "anti-Iraninan" missile sheild in ....Poland???? And the Czech Republic??? Whose missiles are we "anti-ing again?"

Yep..... it is all true. Here I am celebrating the last vestiges of the old cold war.... while everyone else is trying to start a new one..... Only now, we have China wanting to play too......

"Duck and cover"

-KC

 

[S-Des]

Yep..... it is all true. Here I am celebrating the last vestiges of the old cold war.... while everyone else is trying to start a new one..... Only now, we have China wanting to play too......

"Duck and cover"

-KC

I can't agree enough. The most amazing part is that we are supporting China's militarization by accepting their goods non-stop (despite how many times we've found out they've been poisoning us or our pets). I try to avoid it when I can, but it's so difficult to find things made somewhere that is only moderately oppressive toward their citizens.

 

[rgraham666]

Find really cheap things made somewhere that is only moderately oppressive toward their citizens I think would be the more accurate way to say it.

There's lots of places that turn out high quality products that don't oppress their people. But we're more interested in cheap than good.