The Day After...and now. [View All]

[trof]

I saw "The Day After" again yesterday afternoon.
It was shot in 1983, when we were still in the midst of the cold war and daily lived with the risk of nuclear annihilation.

From wikipedia:
"The chronology of the political events leading up to the war are shown entirely through a series of television and radio broadcasts. The Soviet Union has commenced a military buildup in East Germany, with the goal of intimidating the United States into abandoning its support of a free West Berlin. The U.S. does not back down, and the Soviets then blockade West Berlin. This action is interpreted as an act of war by the former.

As tensions mount, the United States orders the Soviets to stand down from the blockade of Berlin, which the Soviets in turn also refuse. NATO forces based in West Germany then invade East Germany to free Berlin.

The Soviet Union counters by launching a major attack into West Germany through the Fulda Gap. NATO counterattacks and comes to the assistance of West Germany. There follow unconfirmed reports that the Soviets have destroyed the city of Wiesbaden with a nuclear bomb. The Soviet Army eventually reaches the Rhine, at which time the United States halts the assault by detonating several low-yield nuclear bombs over advancing Soviet troops. Soviet forces counter by launching a nuclear attack on NATO's Regional European headquarters."

At the time, it was a very frightening film. And today, it still is.
I feel like we've come full circle from my "duck and cover" school days.
Like Yogi said "It's deja vu, all over again".

Oh there was a short period when the Soviet Union imploded that I thought (foolishly, it seems) "Well, at least THAT'S over. Now I can just confine my worries and concerns to the 'normal', everyday stuff like earning a living, getting my cholesterol down, and maybe saving the planet from pollution and warming."

So here I am, in the winter of my life, once again wondering if this new nuclear threat could escalate to something really godawful.

Especially now, when a megalomaniac "leader of the free world" and his band of neo-con, chickenhawk, uber-hawks have their collective fingers on OUR button. And, given the colossal blunders of this administration, they might not even push it "on purpose".

At least in past administrations, Dem and Repub, there were some "cooler heads" around to prevail.
Not this time.

Kim Jong Il doesn't scare me nearly as much as George W. Bush.