Cold War Chills
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, people worldwide seemed to be relieved that the threat of nuclear war was over. Everything that filled our fears and thoughts about possible nuclear exchange left our awareness and times were good. Gone were the fallout shelters and 3-5 minute steady attack tones on the civil defense systems.
It’s easy to forget that nuclear weapons did not go away and the world kept them for an uncertain future. Sure, we took bombers off routine alert and put the bombs back in bunkers, but the submarines and missile silos always stood ready.
But if you thought the threat couldn’t return, you would be sadly mistaken. The threat has always been there but has been diminished, and has not been on our minds in a while. We can skip over the last couple of decades because that’s all irrelevant now.
Russia is taking an aggressor role in the world’s stage, North Korea is rapidly expanding their arsenal, and now China possibly has a larger missile force than the USA as they surpass US in number of ICBM launchers. I think it’s safe to say that no country’s leader wants a nuclear war, but we have seen how aggressive leaders are willing to risk escalation and threaten other nations.
Prepare for the worst and hope for the best… it’s all we can do.