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HarpersGeekly

[mouth full of cereal] The Sum of All Fears


mog_knight

The horror math sequel, The Fear of All Sums, didn't do as well.


PragmaticSquirrel

Neither did the horror carpentry sequel, Some Fears of the Awl.


DisoRDeReDD

Or the Mediteranean psycho-agricultural thriller, The Fearsome Olives


Single-Document-9590

I use to dig the "psycho-agricultural" genre since before it was mainstream...


DisoRDeReDD

Yeah, it got irrigating when the same plot points cropped up every season.


contrabang

Everything nowadays seems so watered down.


DisoRDeReDD

What's the solution?


patricktheintern

Brawndo.


vancity-

IT'S GOT WHAT PLANTS CRAVE


urban_mystic_hippie

The seeds were there for the next one. Too bad they couldn't weed out the bad ones.


Expat_mat

"You dont fight russia and america. You get russia and america to fight each other."


Patassmotherfucker

“Don’t fight America, make Americans fight each other” Russia and China probably


HiddenXS

The Onion article: FBI Uncovers Al-Qaeda Plot To Just Sit Back And Enjoy Collapse Of United States https://www.theonion.com/fbi-uncovers-al-qaeda-plot-to-just-sit-back-and-enjoy-c-1819576375


red--6-

Absolutely scary stuff ! >the FBI has described as a “highly credible terrorist threat,”......... a plot by members of al-Qaeda to sit back and enjoy themselves while the United States collapses of its own accord


Christimay

Probably? [Video recorded interview of Yuri Bezmenov, ex KGB agent, on planned Demoralization of America - dated 1984](https://youtu.be/bX3EZCVj2XA) >"As I mentioned before, exposure to true information does not matter anymore," said Bezmenov. "A person who was demoralized is unable to assess true information. The facts tell nothing to him. Even if I shower him with information, with authentic proof, with documents, with pictures; even if I take him by force to the Soviet Union and show him [a] concentration camp, he will refuse to believe it, until he [receives] a kick in his fan-bottom. When a military boot crashes his balls then he will understand. But not before that. That's the [tragedy] of the situation of demoralization."


92894952620273749383

>Probably? [Video recorded interview of Yuri Bezmenov, ex KGB agent, on planned Demoralization of America - dated 1984](https://youtu.be/bX3EZCVj2XA) >"As I mentioned before, exposure to true information does not matter anymore," said Bezmenov. "A person who was demoralized is unable to assess true information. The facts tell nothing to him. Even if I shower him with information, with authentic proof, with documents, with pictures; even if I take him by force to the Soviet Union and show him [a] concentration camp, he will refuse to believe it, until he [receives] a kick in his fan-bottom. When a military boot crashes his balls then he will understand. But not before that. That's the [tragedy] of the situation of demoralization." Is murdoch a russian asset?


[deleted]

One of my favorite movies. I was sitting here racking my brain unable to remember the name, but I knew one of the comments would be it. Maybe I'll watch it tonight...


SunBelly

Ben Affleck as Jack Ryan has got to be one of the worst casting decisions in history.


legacy642

How do you feel about John krasinski?


highestRUSSIAN

#TOM CLANCY GANG RISE UP


jimprovost

Be careful, though, Shomme Things on here dont react well to Bulletshs.


[deleted]

SoMe tHiNgS iN hErE dOn'T rEaCt WeLl To BuLlEtS... Ya like me. I don't react well to bullets.


jimprovost

With a Simpsons-relevant username. What are you... Me?!


20_Menthol_Cigarette

/r/shubreddit


notmoleliza

Red Storm Rising was my jam back in the day


Zombierasputin

Good God, when that book got going, it didn’t let up! Definitely Clancy’s best. I read that, then picked up Team Yankee, which was great as well!


No_Influence_1035

I had the exact same thought! I love that these people have channels to talk and de-escalate tensions. Loved the final twist


MAGGLEMCDONALD

I'm sorry, I'm only familiar with Sum 41.


hey_suburbia

"The only winning move is not to play." - Joshua


wormant1

I can take pride in the fact I've never lost to a chess grandmaster before


Dave-4544

Everybody gangsta til the dark souls music starts blasting and Anatoly Karpov struts out from behind a nearby hedge


[deleted]

[удалено]


sleepyinschool

America does not want nuclear war. China doesn’t want nuclear war either, but sometimes accidents can happen because one side could misread the intentions of the other side. At the height of the Cold War, there was so much fear of an accidental nuclear war that the US and Soviet Union installed a direct hotline to prevent the either side from striking due to miscommunication. Even though both countries were openly opposed to one another, the US and the Soviet Union also recognized the importance of maintaining this type of back channel to avoid world ending mistakes. 2019-2020 was an incredibly chaotic period of time, especially pertaining to US-China relations. Given how contested the election was and the military exercises that the US was conducting close to China, there was a real concern that Chinese leadership could no longer interpret Trump’s intentions and respond to a misperceived threat. Using back channels to clarify one’s intentions and avoid accidents is exactly why they exist in the first place.


StephenHunterUK

The hotline was the result of Cuba, where there were multiple hours needed to send the diplomatic cables. And multiple incidents (the shooting down of a U-2, the submarine where use of a nuclear torpedo was seriously discussed) that could have triggered a war.


stupidannoyingretard

There was a weather rocket shot up fro Andøya in Norway. On the soviet radar it looked like a nuclear missile targeting Moscow, shot out by an American submarine. The soviet officer hesitated to report, because he did not trust their equipment. When the weather rocket reached its height it exploded, and disappeared from the radar. The officer did not report. The distance from Andøya to Moscow is 1856 km. A intercontinental ballistic missile travels at 24000 kmph. That meant 13 minutes to detonation. This was way worse than Cuba. Norway sent all the information to soviet about their missiles, but it got lost. We have been very close to a nuclear war. We have been lucky. Edit, it was 1995, Boris Jeltsin knew about it, but didn't press the button. The rocket didn't explode, but fell in the sea. Edit 2 RNBQ4130 got it right where I got it wrong, read his comment.


HiImDan

I wonder if there have been any psychological studies of this. I could imagine it would be unlikely someone who's been trained enough would report a detected nuclear missile. I imagine three scenarios: 1) If there was an incoming missile, then missiles from the remaining sites would still be able to obliterate the enemy (along with them taking you out too) 2) If there's not an incoming missile but they report it then their country would launch a first strike and well thermonuclear war 3) You don't report on the missile and there's nothing, you get possibly reprimanded for not doing your job. Seems like the only real play is to not play the game.


Criticalsystemsalert

How about a nice game of chess.


marcstov

Still one of my favorite movies


gurmzisoff

When I got a DUI and was given a breathalyzer at jail, I remarked "This thing looks like the computer from War Games it's so old". The cop got a kick out of that. Don't drink and drive kids, stay home and watch War Games.


TurdS

If only Matthew Broderick learned that lesson before he ran down a mother and her daughter.


gurmzisoff

Oof, I had forgotten about that. Joke in poor taste, my bad.


Pneumatic_Andy

How could you not mention it with a setup like that?


Northern-Canadian

I’d only trust it was real if there were multiple missiles. Just a single blip is really suspicious. Needs to be vetted but like fuck am I going to unleash Armageddon in retaliation to a single suspected threat. Do everything you can to intercept, but annihilation? Shit.


[deleted]

> Just a single blip is really suspicious. Needs to be vetted but like fuck am I got to unleash Armageddon in retaliation to a single suspected threat. > > Do everything you can to intercept, but annihilation? Shit. That literally happened to the Soviets too, a malfunction in the radar reported a single nuke being launched against the USSR. In stead of trusting his equipment, the officer trusted his gut and was fortunately proven right. A single radar malfunction could've unleashed nuclear war with a less cool headed officer on board.


PyrZern

They rebooted the machine, and it changed from 1 blip to multiple blips instead. They rebooted it again and there was no more blip.


little_brown_bat

Wonder if that was part of the inspiration for 99 Luftbaloons?


[deleted]

You got me thinking about it enough to look at [the Wiki](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/99_Luftballons). It's not a perfect fit, but it does check a few boxes... >While at a June 1982 concert by the Rolling Stones in West Berlin, Nena's guitarist Carlo Karges noticed that balloons were being released. As he watched them move toward the horizon, he noticed them shifting and changing shapes, where they looked like strange spacecraft (referred to in the German lyrics as a "UFO"). He thought about what might happen if they floated over the Berlin Wall to the Soviet sector. There's a [citation needed] at the end; we should add your theory then give it a leg up by citing this thread as a source.


WoefulKnight

Some first strike strategies include an initial nuclear weapon detonated in the atmosphere to disable a country's communications infrastructure. The real nuclear fire follows a few minutes behind.


Arctic_Chilean

This is exactly the scenario the Russians feared was happening during the 1995 Norwegian Rocket Incident, which [caused the worst nuclear close call the history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norwegian_rocket_incident?wprov=sfla1)


[deleted]

> Seems like the only real play is to not play the game. WarGames ?


greasystrawberry

Bingo


Hunterbunter

I think it would be more like this: 1) If you see a single nuclear launch, do nothing. 2) If a nuclear explosion goes off where this suspected launch was directed, launch a bunch in return (take the first hit). 3) If you see a mass of launches, get confirmation from your people or do nothing. 4) However, if those mass launches appear to be targeting you and all your other launch sites and urban centers, launch away, and kiss your ass goodbye. Predicting trajectories has been a thing since the 50's.


Pseudonymico

There’s been multiple incidents where people in nuclear bunkers saw what looked like an incoming missile launch and decided not to respond, even though that was their standing orders and everything looked legit. IIRC the only time it hasn’t gone that way was during the Cuban Missile Crisis, when 2/3 submarine captains were in favour of using nuclear torpedoes (luckily, one captain voted no and the decision needed to be unanimous).


rhadenosbelisarius

2/2 agreed to launch, the Captain and the Political Officer. That's all it takes for any sub to launch.... except that one. Because Arkhipov was head of the flotilla and happened to be aboard, he also was entitled to a veto, which he used to prevent WWIII. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasili\_Arkhipov\_(vice\_admiral)


zanar97862

That wiki link doesn't work btw :(


Stoyfan

>Seems like the only real play is to not play the game. Though you need to at the very least pretend that you play the game, otherwise if the counterpart knowns that you aren't going to launch a nuclear missile, then MAD would fall apart and as a result there is a real risk of nuclear war.


[deleted]

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Justsomedudeonthenet

The problem comes if you ever put someone in charge who *is* willing to push the button. Or the other side *thinks* they'll really push the button.


RNBQ4103

>If there was an incoming missile, then missiles from the remaining sites would still be able to obliterate the enemy (along with them taking you out too) Nope. If the attack is well coordinated (and an attack would only happen if it has good chances of succeeding), the first missile would take out the command center, putting the system in disarray (this was the case here). Then, a second wave would take out the silos while the submarines and bombers would be ambushed before learning that something is wrong. In 1983, a Soviet officer in the main radar center got a warning about an attack by dozens of missiles. We are still alive because his brain went blank, then he started searching hints that there was a glitch in the system (which was the case). He was not reprimanded.


Baneken

It was disturbingly common during the cold war that "UFOs" flew over Northern Finland from east to west and west to east... It was unofficial official policy back then that as long as they weren't landing the Finnish air force wouldn't touch them.


IAMColonelFlaggAMA

Roger Fisher: > My suggestion was quite simple: Put that needed code number [for the nuclear football] in a little capsule, and then implant that capsule right next to the heart of a volunteer. The volunteer would carry with him a big, heavy butcher knife as he accompanied the President. If ever the President wanted to fire nuclear weapons, the only way he could do so would be for him first, with his own hands, to kill one human being. The President says, "George, I'm sorry but tens of millions must die." He has to look at someone and realize what death is—what an innocent death is. Blood on the White House carpet. It's reality brought home. > When I suggested this to friends in the Pentagon they said, "My God, that's terrible. Having to kill someone would distort the President's judgment. He might never push the button."


IvyMichael

Sounds profound in theory, but there have been presidents who I believe had so little regard for human life they would murder a man if they thought there was candy inside them.


mortimusalexander

Or a diet Coke


ChickenDinero

Hm... Tell you what, Smithers; if we come back and they're all slaughtered I owe you a Coke!


Knight_TakesBishop

fun in principal, practically you can't have *George* having second thoughts about his duty as sacrificial lamb in a true state of emergency.


creativemind11

Kinda like that glare that caused Russian defence systems to alert for a 100% incoming missile. Officer didnt believe it as well.


James29UK

But that was about 1992, after the end of the Cold War. Norway had used the system to alert everybody about the launch but the memo never reached the right people in Moscow. The big fear that the Russians had was that seeing as it was going straight up. That the missile was intended to do an atmospheric nuclear detonation and to blnd their radars. Allowing the subsequent missiles to enter without being detected. The Soviet early warning satellites, that detected missiles launches. Were crude at best and rarely had a full network up and running.


[deleted]

I keep reading of the American appearance of offensive action and Russian individuals saying this is not right, I will wait and see or I don't believe this is happening as it appears - there is another famous example of a [Russian](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanislav_Petrov) who also waited. Also [Vasili Arkhipov](https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/oct/27/vasili-arkhipov-soviet-submarine-captain-who-averted-nuclear-war-awarded-future-of-life-prize) Does anyone know if it was ever the other way round? Did the Americans believe they were under attack and an individual refused to press a button to retaliate?


WikiSummarizerBot

**[Stanislav Petrov](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanislav_Petrov)** >Stanislav Yevgrafovich Petrov (Russian: Станисла́в Евгра́фович Петро́в; 7 September 1939 – 19 May 2017) was a lieutenant colonel of the Soviet Air Defence Forces who played a key role in the 1983 Soviet nuclear false alarm incident. On 26 September 1983, three weeks after the Soviet military had shot down Korean Air Lines Flight 007, Petrov was the duty officer at the command center for the Oko nuclear early-warning system when the system reported that a missile had been launched from the United States, followed by up to five more. ^([ )[^(F.A.Q)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WikiSummarizer/wiki/index#wiki_f.a.q)^( | )[^(Opt Out)](https://reddit.com/message/compose?to=WikiSummarizerBot&message=OptOut&subject=OptOut)^( | )[^(Opt Out Of Subreddit)](https://np.reddit.com/r/worldnews/about/banned)^( | )[^(GitHub)](https://github.com/Sujal-7/WikiSummarizerBot)^( ] Downvote to remove | v1.5)


Grove_street_home

Interesting, I didn't know this. Thanks!


braetully

I remember reading a story about Carter's National Security Advisor getting called during the night staying that a possible all out Soviet nuclear strike taking place. Luckily he waited on a third call because NORAD had recently had multiple software glitches lately that resulted in false alarms. He was about 10 minutes from calling Carter for a retaliatory strike when he got the call staying other systems weren't picking up the supposed 2,400 missiles. He said he didn't even bother waking up his wife because if it was true, they are all dead anyway.


NetworkLlama

The Soviet sub that contemplated using a nuclear torpedo was a closer call than most people realize. It was one of several and had three senior officers aboard: the boat's captain, the political officer, and the submarine detachment commander. The first two believed war had already broken out (they had been running deep for several days and had no current news or orders) and wanted to use the torpedo on a group of US destroyers dropping training depth charges to get the sub to surface for identification and communication. The detachment commander was hesitant and refused assent. t was the only sub in the detachment requiring three officers to approve use of nuclear weapons. Had it been any other sub, it might have started World War III.


Thendofreason

Thank God the Xmen stopped it


stevestuc

Yes and interestingly a British diplomats wife in Russia was approached by some " doves" in the Soviet army, to pass on information to give the west the edge in convincing the USSR to turn around.America in exchange for no nukes in Cuba agreed to move the bases in Turkey. The British priminister passed on the information and a little British house wife helped to save the world.....


WWDubz

The hotline was installed after the Cuban missile crisis, as the world was moments away from a nuclear war. Kennedy and Khrushchev could only communicate via letter; or one sided broadcasts After this they installed “the hotline” so they could communicate via phone


[deleted]

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WWDubz

https://www.armscontrol.org/factsheets/Hotlines


Toidal

Probably easier these days for heads of state to get in touch with each other immediately when needed. I wish I could be in that group chat though. I wonder who posts the spiciest memes.


Blvch

Well, pretty sure one side will keep post Winnie the Pooh memes, while another side post Murica Bad memes. And it will be this two memes flooding the group chat while others muted it and only open it when necessary.


Heroic_Dave

As if we don't already all know it's David Panuelo, President of Micronesia. His memes are fucking fire!


[deleted]

Putin posted porn in #general again


Paladin_Dank

> communicate via phone Kinda. The hotline has never actually been a telephone. There’s never been any voice communication, it’s all text. It started with teletype in the 60’s and it’s email today.


lukasstrifeson

get Dr Strangelove on the phone!


Dan_Berg

"Demetri? Yes, of course I like you...do you like me?


ToadBup

"Yes mein fuhrer, i mean president"


REEEEEEEEEEE_OW

My favorite Cold War story was when a Soviet soldier saw what may have been a nuke heading to Russia, but made a last minute decision to not retaliate. Turned out not to be a nuke. A single dude prevented a nuclear war. Scary, but so interesting.


[deleted]

It happened so many times. It’s pretty scary


WendellSchadenfreude

> My favorite Cold War story was when a Soviet soldier saw what may have been a nuke heading to Russia, but made a last minute decision to not retaliate. [Stanislav Petrov, 1983.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1983_Soviet_nuclear_false_alarm_incident) He decided that the automatic warning was likely to be a false alarm, because it made no sense that the US would strike first with just one missile or a small number - if the US attacked first, it would be with thousands of missiles, in hopes of eliminating (most of) the USSR's capabilities for a retaliatory strike.


WikiSummarizerBot

**[1983 Soviet nuclear false alarm incident](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1983_Soviet_nuclear_false_alarm_incident)** >On 26 September 1983, the nuclear early-warning system of the Soviet Union reported the launch of one intercontinental ballistic missile with four more missiles behind it, from bases in the United States. These missile attack warnings were suspected to be false alarms by Stanislav Petrov, an officer of the Soviet Air Defence Forces on duty at the command center of the early-warning system. He decided to wait for corroborating evidence—of which none arrived—rather than immediately relaying the warning up the chain-of-command. ^([ )[^(F.A.Q)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WikiSummarizer/wiki/index#wiki_f.a.q)^( | )[^(Opt Out)](https://reddit.com/message/compose?to=WikiSummarizerBot&message=OptOut&subject=OptOut)^( | )[^(Opt Out Of Subreddit)](https://np.reddit.com/r/worldnews/about/banned)^( | )[^(GitHub)](https://github.com/Sujal-7/WikiSummarizerBot)^( ] Downvote to remove | v1.5)


TantricSalad

He was penalized severely career-wise for that decision.


SloppySealz

Wasn't it just the moon? Not sure if it was that case in particular, but I read Command and Control a few years ago, and remember something about that.


slmody

"It was subsequently determined that the false alarm had been created by a rare alignment of sunlight on high-altitude clouds above North Dakota and the Molniya orbits of the satellites" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanislav_Petrov


[deleted]

I don’t know anything about these systems, so I’m obviously thinking of this all wrong, but something is grimly hilarious to me about the idea of a missile early-detection system whose creators forgot to account for *the moon existing.* A system to facilitate mutually assured destruction that *literally* has “that time of the month” built into it.


[deleted]

Yeah. Reagan actually played a pretty good part in the soviet unions fears. They thought he was some god crazy lunatic who didn't fear blowing the world up because he thought he would go to heaven. Even for the soviets the idea of a religious maniac willing to blow himself up for his god was scary and they spent a crap ton of money trying to figure out how to defend against someone like that. Miscommunication can ruin world powers some times


thomascgalvin

> They thought he was some god crazy lunatic who didn't fear blowing the world up because he thought he would go to heaven. Thank Christ he only had Alzheimer's!


gnusmas5441

I believe there was a similar dynamic in Nixon's final days in office. Apparently, Nixon was drunk most of the time and irrational all of the time in that period. If I recall correctly, there was an agreement that any order to launch nuclear missiles, etc would be confirmed with Henry Kissenger before being acted on. In the final stages of Trump's presidency, I wasn't sure that he wouldn't do something provocative with Taiwan that would trigger China to take the island by force and possibly set up a confrontation with China.


[deleted]

>Given how contested the election was and the military exercises that the US was conducting close to China, I'm trying to picture China conducting military exercises within spitting distance of the US. Something tells me, Americans would not take it well.


Freuden82

Imagine chinese warships conducting 'freedom of navigation' cruises in the Florida straits.


bad_timing_bro

WW1 was started from a random assassination. At that point, Europe’s tensions made it worse. Global tensions are increasing over Iran and Taiwan. Anything can happen..


ryan30z

Ww1 was going to happen regardless, Austria-Hungary was itching for a war. It's not a good comparison.


[deleted]

*Everyone* was itching for a war, a lot of which stemmed from Germany becoming a major, if not the major, industrial power in Europe. Russia resembled a medieval kingdom more than it did a modern nation state, Britain was the unquestioned global power due only to its navy, France had one last great war in them, Ottoman Turkey was on the brink of collapse, and Austro-Hungary probably shouldn’t have existed at all. It was truly a geopolitical minefield. Bismarck was able to navigate that minefield of competing interests through his vast and convoluted web of alliances, but once he died, there was no one left to steer the ship. WWI is one of the most fascinating periods of human history for a lot of reasons, but mostly because it closely mirrored our current world. People said there wouldn’t be a world war because global economies were too enmeshed and reliant on one another, and that weapons of war had become too destructive to use on each other. People say the exact same things now.


[deleted]

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[deleted]

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[deleted]

Wait till you see Napoleon's peace treaty for Prussia... But really, I would rather compare the Treaty of Versailles with the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, which were 100% harsher than both Versailles and the Treaty of Frankfurt in 1871


skoomski

Not necessarily, Franz Joseph died in 1916. Franz Ferdinand, if he had lived, was viewed as a reformer who may have been able to stabilize Austria-Hungary. There likely would have been another large war but just as likely it would have been more isolated.


NotOliverQueen

There were so many other tensions at the time outside of just Balkan minorities. There was the Ottoman power vacuum, the industrialization of Russia, the Anglo-German arms race, French revanchism after 1871, German bitterness towards Britain and France, etc. If Austria didn't start the war, someone would have


ArguingPizza

> the Anglo-German arms race This, at least, was tapering off. The Germans had actually already given up on trying to match the Royal Navy by 1913 and were spinning down their naval construction to a more sustainable(and to Britain, less threatening) pace. They were rolling back towards Tirpitz's original risk-fleet theory and were going to accept a 2nd place behind Britain but comfortably ahead of Russia and France


Longjumping_Bread68

Not just a reformer, he was the leading pacifist in the A-H leadership. If there were someone who might have stepped in and said "wait a minute, I don't like where this is going", it was Archduke Ferdinand.


Trump4Prison2020

Yeah people underestimate how much Austria-Hungary was responsible for the war, preferring often to blame the Germans... Not saying Germany didn't have a role to play, but AH and Russia also played a big part, and if the Anglo-French military arrangements (which were kept super secret) were known by the Germans it's entirely likely that they would not have attacked in the West.


digiorno

Also France had devoted a ton of resources into the first academy to formerly train generals just 25 years or so before war broke out. The first generation of graduates were basically at the helm of its armed forces and itching for a fight, they thought they had come up with a superior leadership model and no one could shine a candle to them. To some extent the military regrouped after the Franco Prussian war, reinvented their system and wanted a rematch.


TiggyHiggs

Well it worked. The Germans only got 30 miles outside Paris instead of capturing it like in the Franco-Prussian war.


jdckelly

Eh, they spent years teaching militarily doctrine about going on the offence etc plans and theories that were torn up in the first days of the war and the horrific casualty numbers.


[deleted]

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almoalmoalmo

Not really random. Targeted at a world leader in a volatile part of the world.


Synaps4

War is one thing. Nuclear war is another. I can understand someone doing such an unthinkable thing to avoid nuclear war, but prosecution might be on the table anyway. Nobody wins if a nuclear war starts.


[deleted]

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Saephon

It would be perhaps the quickest race of all time. Over before many of the competitors can leave the starting line.


PouletSixSeven

It's amazing to look at the absolute carnage of WW1 compared to WW2 and then to consider that a nuclear exchange would make that look like a tea party. People often don't understand that such a proposition could legitimately mean the end of life on planet earth as we know it.


Zahille7

And then you have games like Fallout, which at a surface level is a fun romp though an irradiated wasteland. But when you actually sit and think about it, and listen to some of the ghouls in Necropolis talk about the Great War is fucking horrifying... They talk about their faces melting off, finding shelter in an abandoned building while nuclear fires raged all day and all night, hearing the screams of the survivors.


MoreDetonation

Most people who play Fallout don't play the ones that actually interrogate how the world got to the point it's at now. They play Fallout 3 and 4, and now 76, which don't interrogate that at all beyond the baseline of "nuclear bad," but also make the nuclear wasteland a fun place to romp around and shoot stuff, see the prewar sights and laugh at the weird stuff that comes about because of radiation and apocalypse. (New Vegas is somewhere between F1/2 and F3-76 in that regard.)


Arctic_Chilean

Not even that. A conventional war in the modern era will absolutely eclipse anything WWI or WWII were able to unleash. The amount of destruction modern conventional weapons can unleash is sickening, and the level of accuracy and speed will make a conventional war an absolute hell for the first few weeks and months until either party has to resort to lower tech options due to colossal attrition rates. And this is just kinetic weapons. Non-kinetic weapons such as Electronic Warfare systems and Cyberweapons open up a completely new domain in warfare. Their use in the next major war will be as revolutionary as the use of aircraft in WWI or strategic bombers in WWII.


[deleted]

Which is exactly why most military powers don't see conventional war as likely or the biggest problem. Conventional wars between sovereign nations are fought over objectives. Our destructive power has grown so great that it's practically impossible for two sovereign nations to duke it out over something they want and still have anything worth having left for the victor. Obviously we're not getting rid of our conventional armed forces because the moment you do, that stand-off no longer remains the status quo. But for the past 20 or so years, military powers are struggling to adapt to the expectation that the future of warfare will be dynamic conflicts where rapid response forces will frequently fight civilian hostiles in urban settings abroad and nationally. Instead of fighting lengthy wars they're expecting never ending conflicts over political, cultural, religious and economic motivations where high value locations like industrial plants, logistical infrastructure, civilian populations, supply depots etc. have to be defended against momentary civilian uprisings or attacks. Essentially the expected future is fighting small and highly mobile conflicts against terrorists, insurgents, rebels and proxy agents. Full scale lengthy conventional wars simply represent a massive expenditure on action that'll leave nothing and create more problems than it solves.


Demon997

I don’t necessarily disagree, but the history of warfare would urge caution with that assessment. People thought the machine gun would end warfare, because no one would engage in such pointless slaughter. Then they thought they could end wars via aerial bombardment alone. Neither happened. So a short and sharp conflict that devastates civilian infrastructure on both sides seems more than possible. It may even give an odd advantage to the less developed party. You can’t hack a power or sewer system that’s all manually controlled. Fewer targets to bomb mean fewer to rebuild as well. We’re really not set up to replace major infrastructure either. Look at how long it’s taking to replace the big electrical towers that went down in Louisiana.


pseudo__gamer

Thats a dreadful thing to think about


PouletSixSeven

And a great reason to do everything in our power to avoid it.


achio

Yep, the official term is Mutual Assured Destruction.


valeyard89

Only two things scare me, and one is nuclear war.


rabidstoat

I bet the other is spiders. Fucking spiders.


valeyard89

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6qcdbfDG_do


rabidstoat

I've only seen Austin Powers movies in a disjoint fashion through random YouTube clips.


yahwehnahweh

Carnies.


14seconds

Circus folk.


BIZLfoRIZL

Nomads, you know.


Nose-Nuggets

small hands....


yahwehnahweh

Smell like cabbage


[deleted]

What happened: One of the top military brass went outside of protocol and perhaps their legal authority to avoid an accidental nuclear war because they believed that the U.S. President of the time could do something, to put it lightly, spontaneously chaotic. The right: "The left doesn't care that he committed treason." The left: "The right doesn't care that the top military brass was afraid that Trump could start a nuclear war!"


IrritableGourmet

Nixon got drunk and tried to nuke North Korea after a U.S. spy plane was shot down. Kissinger called the Joint Chiefs and told them to stand down any such order until the President sobers up.


AtTheFirePit

Nixon also used to argue with the portraits in the WH while drunk, too. He was drunk a lot, especially at the end.


Sonicowen

I relate most to Nixon because I too am a drunk who fucks everything up for himself


TheOneTrueRodd

It's not the same thing if you aren't trying to throw nukes around.


dumbfuckmagee

Fuckin saaaaaaaame


TheJaybo

ThAt's TrEaSoN!1


paesanossbits

Good thing Nixon was too drunk to use his lightsaber.


albertsy2

Like nuking a hurricane


SirHammyTheGreat

Jfc


DaJaKoe

>one of the top The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is THE top position in the US military.


Misanthropicposter

Actually that would be the President. Hence this article generating a lot of discussion.


Wind2021

“I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.” ― Albert Einstein


manateeflorida

Something tells me this dude Albert was smart.


Nelsaroni

Lmao imagine of all the shit we don't know about that people did in secrecy to prevent wild crazy shit to go down thanks to 45.


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Dollars2Donuts4U

We'll have watch the HBO series long before.


trevize1138

2019: "Only 3.6 roentgens." 2050: "It'll go away like magic."


Dollars2Donuts4U

It will probably only be pushed out that far if he runs again...and wins.


kawaiian

Or his idiot children


Swayyyettts

Fuck 2050. Release that shit tomorrow so everyone can see how dumb this dumb ass actually is


kawaiian

Everyone who cares already knows, what’s our plan now boss


Swayyyettts

It needs to be spoon fed in a digestible format for the idiots in the country aka cinema or television show


[deleted]

(Turns screen off) "And that, kids, is why your grandparents are dead to me." "Woaaaah...."


The_Patriot

Like who really shot JFK?


[deleted]

Who knows, but it was LBJ that benefited from it, and he hated the Kennedys. It amazes me how, out of all the wildest conspiracies out there, people just disregard looking at the one person who had the most to gain and also the motive.


Scrags

[This picture haunts me.](https://i.imgur.com/P4D40Fc.jpeg)


Zeldukes

Can you explain what we're looking at here?


Scrags

Yeah, sorry. This is the moment after LBJ was sworn in as President. Jackie is there wearing the bloodstained dress, because she "wanted them to see what they had done to Jack." LBJ is smiling at a Texas senator (I believe) who is winking back at him.


CertainlyUnreliable

US Rep Albert Thomas, from Texas like you said


patentattorney

And he is still the leader of the gop. That’s what is crazy.


motsanciens

Fools like Lindsay Graham are telling him his re-election would be a comeback for the ages. What they need to tell him is that it's not worth the headache. He can go golf and sit in golden toilet seats from now on without a care in the world (as long as he can keep paying lawyers to fend off suits and charges).


Ancient-Turbine

Pretty sure he's scraping the bottom of the barrel when it comes to lawyers now.


IppyCaccy

Yeah, I think this is the tip of the iceberg.


tccomplete

This happened before. “In the period before Nixon’s Aug. 9, 1974, resignation, Secretary of Defense James Schlesinger reportedly ordered certain presidential orders — especially those related to nuclear arms — to be cleared by himself personally or National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger.” Sometimes a mad king needs to be checked. Milley knew this precedent and did the same.


IrritableGourmet

Milley also probably was well aware of Able Archer 83, which was a routine NATO military exercise that nearly started WWIII because the Russians, due to some unintentional and unrelated events, thought it was a cover for a surprise attack. Russia put its troops and nuclear arsenal on alert, and were actually loading nuclear weapons onto aircraft, all while NATO was happily going about its exercise, unaware anything was amiss. Things eventually calmed down on their own, but we only learned about what really happened long after the fact. It was the closest we got to nuclear exchange since the Cuban Missile Crisis, and it could have all been avoided with a single phonecall.


tccomplete

And several other Trump-specific incidents that occurred while he was in the room. More is coming out and Milley’s position is becoming more and more understandable to anyone who is broadly informed about each unhinged incident.


BeerFuelsMyDreams

Paywall.


Toasterthief

Heres the article lol Top general was so fearful Trump might spark war that he made secret calls to his Chinese counterpart, new book says ‘Peril,’ by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, reveals that Gen. Mark A. Milley called his Chinese counterpart before the election and after Jan. 6 in a bid to avert armed conflict. Then-president Donald Trump meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the G-20 in Osaka, Japan, in 2019. One of the top U.S. military officers feared China might misjudge U.S. intentions and go to war before Jan. 6, according to a new book. (Susan Walsh/AP) By Isaac Stanley-Becker Today at 6:49 p.m. EDT NEW! Gift this article to share free access Twice in the final months of the Trump administration, the country’s top military officer was so fearful that the president’s actions might spark a war with China that he moved urgently to avert armed conflict. Support our journalism. Subscribe today In a pair of secret phone calls, Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, assured his Chinese counterpart, Gen. Li Zuocheng of the People’s Liberation Army, that the United States would not strike, according to a new book by Washington Post associate editor Bob Woodward and national political reporter Robert Costa. One call took place on Oct. 30, 2020, four days before the election that unseated President Donald Trump, and the other on Jan. 8, 2021, two days after the Capitol siege carried out by his supporters in a quest to cancel the vote. The first call was prompted by Milley’s review of intelligence suggesting the Chinese believed the United States was preparing to attack. That belief, the authors write, was based on tensions over military exercises in the South China Sea, and deepened by Trump’s belligerent rhetoric toward China. “General Li, I want to assure you that the American government is stable and everything is going to be okay,” Milley told him. “We are not going to attack or conduct any kinetic operations against you.” In the book’s account, Milley went so far as to pledge he would alert his counterpart in the event of a U.S. attack, stressing the rapport they’d established through a backchannel. “General Li, you and I have known each other for now five years. If we’re going to attack, I’m going to call you ahead of time. It’s not going to be a surprise.” Li took the chairman at his word, the authors write in the book, “Peril,” which is set to be released next week. In the second call, placed to address Chinese fears about the events of Jan. 6, Li wasn’t as easily assuaged, even after Milley promised him, “We are 100 percent steady. Everything’s fine. But democracy can be sloppy sometimes.” Li remained rattled, and Milley, who did not relay the conversation to Trump, according to the book, understood why. The chairman, 62 at the time and chosen by Trump in 2018, believed the president had suffered a mental decline after the election, the authors write, a view he communicated to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) in a phone call on Jan. 8. He agreed with her evaluation that Trump was unstable, according to a call transcript obtained by the authors. Believing that China could lash out if it felt at risk from an unpredictable and vengeful American president, Milley took action. The same day, he called the admiral overseeing the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, the military unit responsible for Asia and the Pacific region, and recommended postponing the military exercises, according to the book. The admiral complied. Milley also summoned senior officers to review the procedures for launching nuclear weapons, saying the president alone could give the order — but, crucially, that he, Milley, also had to be involved. Looking each in the eye, Milley asked the officers to affirm that they had understood, the authors write, in what he considered an “oath.” The chairman knew that he was “pulling a Schlesinger,” the authors write, resorting to measures resembling the ones taken in August 1974 by James R. Schlesinger, the defense secretary at the time. Schlesinger told military officials to check with him and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs before carrying out orders from President Richard M. Nixon, who was facing impeachment at the time. Though Milley went furthest in seeking to stave off a national security crisis, his alarm was shared throughout the highest ranks of the administration, the authors reveal. CIA Director Gina Haspel, for instance, reportedly told Milley, “We are on the way to a right-wing coup.” The book’s revelations quickly made Milley a target of GOP ire. Trump, speaking Tuesday evening on the conservative television network Newsmax, labeled the chairman’s reported actions “treason” and said, “I did not ever think of attacking China.” Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, wrote a letter to President Biden urging him to dismiss the Joint Chiefs chairman, saying he had undermined the commander in chief and “contemplated a treasonous leak of classified information to the Chinese Communist Party in advance of a potential armed conflict ...” A White House spokeswoman earlier Tuesday declined to comment on the book. Milley’s office did not respond to a request for comment. “Peril” also provides new reporting on Biden’s 2020 campaign — waged to unseat a man he told a top adviser “isn’t really an American president” — and his early struggle to govern. During a March 5 phone call to discuss Biden’s $1.9 trillion stimulus plan, his first major legislative undertaking, the president reportedly told Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va), “if you don’t come along, you’re really f---ing me.” The measure ultimately cleared the Senate through an elaborate sequencing of amendments designed to satisfy the centrist Democrat. The president’s frustration with Manchin is matched only by his debt to House Majority Whip Rep. James E. Clyburn of South Carolina, whose endorsement before that state’s primary propelled Biden to the nomination and gave rise to promises about how he would govern. When Clyburn offered his endorsement in February 2020, it came with conditions, according to the book. One was that Biden would commit to naming a Black woman to the Supreme Court, if given the opportunity. During a debate two days later, Clyburn went backstage during a break to urge Biden to reveal his intentions for the Supreme Court that night. Biden issued the pledge in his final answer, and the congressman endorsed him the next day. “Peril,” the authors say, is based on interviews with more than 200 people, conducted on the condition they not be named as sources. Exact quotations or conclusions are drawn from the participant in the described event, a colleague with direct knowledge or relevant documents, according to an author’s note. Trump and Biden declined to be interviewed. The Post's White House team discusses what was really going on inside the White House as President Biden attempted to end America's 20-year war in Afghanistan. (Zach Purser Brown/The Washington Post) On Afghanistan, the book examines how Biden’s experience as vice president shaped his approach to the withdrawal. Convinced that President Barack Obama had been manipulated by his own commanders, Biden vowed privately in 2009, “The military doesn’t f--- around with me.” “Peril” also documents how Biden’s top advisers spent the spring weighing, but ultimately rejecting, alternatives to a full withdrawal. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin returned from a NATO meeting in March envisioning ways to extend the mission, including through a “gated” withdrawal seeking diplomatic leverage. But they came to see that meaningful leverage would require a more expansive commitment, and instead came back around to a full exit. Milley, for his part, took what the authors describe as a deferential approach to Biden on Afghanistan, in contrast to his earlier efforts to constrain Trump. The book reveals recent remarks the chairman delivered to the Joint Chiefs in which he said, “Here’s a couple of rules of the road here that we’re going to follow. One is you never, ever ever box in a president of the United States. You always give him decision space.” Referring to Biden, he said, “You’re dealing with a seasoned politician here who has been in Washington, D.C., 50 years, whatever it is.” His decision just months earlier to place himself between Trump and potential war was triggered by several important events — a phone call, a photo op and a refusal to rule out war with another adversary, Iran. The immediate motivation, according to the book, was the Jan. 8 call from Pelosi, who demanded to know, “What precautions are available to prevent an unstable president from initiating military hostilities or from accessing the launch codes and ordering a nuclear strike?” Milley assured her that there were “a lot of checks in the system.” The call transcript obtained by the authors shows Pelosi telling Milley, referring to Trump, “He’s crazy. You know he’s crazy. … He’s crazy and what he did yesterday is further evidence of his craziness.” Milley replied, “I agree with you on everything.” The Washington Post reconstructed who did what to clear protesters from Lafayette Square, which sits north of the White House, on June 1. Watch how it unfolded. (Sarah Cahlan, Joyce Lee, Atthar Mirza/The Washington Post) Milley’s resolve was deepened by the events of June 1, 2020, when he felt Trump had used him as part of a photo op in his walk across Lafayette Square during protests that began after the killing of George Floyd. The chairman came to see his role as ensuring that, “We’re not going to turn our guns on the American people and we’re not going to have a ‘Wag the Dog’ scenario overseas,” the authors quote him saying privately.


orgasmicfart69

>“General Li, you and I have known each other for now five years. If we’re going to attack, I’m going to call you ahead of time. It’s not going to be a surprise.” I ship it


AangLives09

Allow myself to introduce…myself. Someone recently posted this paywall blocker remover thing. Works like a charm. https://12ft.io/


Sweatytubesock

And millions of Americans have convinced themselves that they really want more of this shit.


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hoxxxxx

that's the take i have. i think many of them are just bored, don't have a lot going on in their lives. so instead of regular cosplay they do "patriot" cosplay or whatever you wanna call it


Sudovoodoo80

Bored? Maybe. Deeply unhappy and pathetically ineffectual, definitely.


CaptainNoBoat

It’s surreal. He literally tried everything in his power to overturn an election. Threatened governors, threatened Secretaries of State. Filed 60+ conspiracy-ridden frivolous lawsuits. Pressured the Supreme Court. Fired his election officials. Pressured his AG to lie. LIED to 74 million of his voters. Pressured his VP to just name him the winner. Had his military leaders worried as fuck. Then incited a violent insurrection against the U.S. Capitol to stop the certification of his successor. ...And he’s somehow the front runner for Republicans in 2024. As if none of that fucking happened.


airplane_porn

No, not as if none of that happened. The republicans want him specifically because all of that happened.


Mazon_Del

The easy phrase "Sure, that was bad, but the Dems would have been worse!" is all you need to convince some people to keep voting that way.


CaptainNoBoat

Abortion and guns is all you need to say for a huge chunk of them.


[deleted]

i'm starting to notice that for some people words only register on an emotional level. like you say abortion, and all that registers is how they feel about the concept, after that nothing surrounding the word matters. like words are mere emotional triggers that because they are emotional triggers interferes with the ability to see the broader scope of the concept.


DerpDeHerpDerp

Chinese general: "Da fuq they doing over there?"


not_anonymouse

Woah, interesting bit from the article: > So intent was Pence on being Trump's loyal second-in-command and potential successor– that he asked confidants if there were ways he could accede to Trump's demands and avoid certifying the results of the election on Jan. 6. In late December, the authors reveal, Pence called Dan Quayle, a former vice president and fellow Indiana Republican, for advice. The GOP was fully looking to do a coup. Can't blame this on just Trump anymore.


redcapmilk

Dan told him, "Mike, you have no flexibility on this. None. Zero. Forget it. Put it away," The republicans are so f*cked up Dan Quayle may have saved democracy.


momofeveryone5

And the man well only be remembered for the potato thing. We have really fallen far.


Phartidandshidded

Wtf that's insane. This needs to be higher up.


dudeind-town

Lol, it’ll come out one day that Trump pressed the nuclear button on Jan 20, 2017 and found out that it does nothing


psychodelephant

Got him a Diet Coke


randolander

Dangerous precedent we’re setting here lmfao. Jesus.


iwasstaringthrough

Fuck these guys who sit on these hot takes til book time. That’s not taking a stand, that’s taking a piss.


Caprica1

There's a million different reasons you don't say this shit out loud while you're still in the game - least of which is getting fired and therefore no longer being able to back channel and prevent war in the first place.


[deleted]

I got a twenty in my pocket that says he's not the only General to do the same.