250821 It Could Happen

I was watching TV this morning when up comes an old episode of the show “60 Minutes". The episode was from 1973 and it was about submarines. I’ll watch anything about subs, from WW-1 until modern day. Submarines fascinate me for some unknown reason. If I was offered a ride on a modern sub, I’m not sure if I would go underwater on one of them, despite the fact that modern subs are very safe.

As I watched the show, one thing that impressed me was the fact that as far back as 1973 one US or Russian submarine could destroy the big cities of the world and using all of its missiles destroy a large part of the world. That would bring the other sub to retaliate and between both subs the world would be destroyed.

That was 52 years ago. By now, submarines are far more powerful and better armed with more explosive power than was available back in 1973. Mutual destruction is the only thing that keeps Russia back from attacking the USA. That makes me think that we are living by a razor thin line in the sand between two of the three great powers in the world.

One terrible comfort in this situation is that while a nuclear war would end us in short order, non nuclear bombs, common bombs, would leave thousands of casualties and suffering instead of being dead.