Once again, the Cold War

"Now the sub wars seem to be back on. It is too bad Tom Clancy is no longer with us. He could write a doozy about this one."

When people asked what I did in the Navy, I tell them for the most part I was a Cold Warrior. Even though the war between the Soviet Union and NATO never got hot (thank God), there were countless days of cat and mouse. People who had high level security clearances would tell you there were some rare times when the fate of the planet hung by a threat. But for the most part, there were just many, many boring days of being on watch.

Now thanks in large part to Vladimir Putin, the Cold War is back - take two. Putin was never really happy how the first iteration to the Cold War came to an end. And because we now have the opposite to Ronald Reagan as our President, well, you know the old saying. Nature abhors a vacuum. Or sand fills a hole quickly. In any event, we have President "Bystander" whereas the Russians seem to have the most aggressive guy since Stalin. 

Now the sub wars seem to be back on. It is too bad Tom Clancy is no longer with us. He could write a doozy about this one. The once feared Alfa Class of submarines have now been retired. In their place is a new diesel class of attack submarine. Plus the first of class nuclear powered attack submarine. We now have the Yasen Class of nuclear attack subs. And the first one (K-560) is set to enter service this year.

Whomever our next President is will have to deal with this situation. The way that Ronald Reagan used to bring the Soviets to their knees will not work again. To keep another generation of service people from being consumed by the endless cat and mouse game, a new strategy must be tried. And all that by keeping this new Cold War from becoming a hot war.

Thinking about this for a minute, who in the heck would want this job as Commander in Chief anyhow? The War on Terror continues. In fact, on the news this morning was a new terror alert about soft targets (like restaurants) being hit in the United States. And of course we can't forget about the trigger happy North Koreans, who are just itching for a fight with someone. And the Iranians, who are going like gangbusters in developing a nuke. Finally, the Bear and the Dragon. Both who feel they got the short end of the stick in the first Cold War, are now ready for round two.

Is it a dangerous world? I think so. Is it more dangerous than when I served? I think that is true also. Of the remaining five folks running for President, there is not one single day of military service amongst them. And in a world this dangerous, that might be a big problem.