As the possibility of a third world war involving nuclear weapons with Russia approaches at the same time as the upcoming American presidential election, it is important to understand how serious this matter is. A conflict with Russia would cause massive damage to the entire world, and in a real sense, there would be no winner. However and most importantly for Americans, they need to understand that the USA will likely emerge as the greater loser.
These are not just my opinions, but the conclusions of a friend who I will call Harold (name, rank, and position withheld) with 40+ years of experience in the Army as a missile specialist and now currently in the private sector working as a US Army contract. He and I have been talking about the situation with Russia for some time, and I would like to share with you some of the insights he has pointed out.
Harold has said that in terms of pure military strength alone, the USA is the unrivalled champion and could defeat Russia. The USA has far better development In terms of weapons systems, next generation weapons systems, missile technology, manpower, and integration of them. This comes in spite of the many scandals involving US Miitary secrets over the past decade. He notes that the Russians are very aware of this, and while they have been working to become militarily competitive with the USA, they are still a ways away. But what Russia lacks against American in military power she compensates for by exploiting or preparing to exploit the numerous, deeply rooted, and in some cases unsolvable weaknesses that the USA has within herself. Harold went on to enumerate America’s many weak points. Most of his points could be placed into two categories- geopolitical and logistical.
Geopolitically, America’s greatest strength is her relative physical isolation from the other nations of the world. She has been well-protected from attack because there is literally an ocean separating her from most enemies. Missile technology has changed this because thanks to long-range missile designs today, it is easy for them to travel the ocean and could strike a target in America. But Harold did not list a long-range foreign missile- or even nuclear strike- from the Russians as a major threat. He said that the biggest threat would be a short or even medium range missile strike a few of any number of specific targets that are all relatively close to the coastline and could either be done by an individual, a small team, or in the largest case, a single submarine.
Consider that 40% of Americans live on the coastlines of the continental USA (this is not including Alaska or Hawaii). Keep in mind this means coastal counties only. If you include the entire mainland USA borders (including along Canada and Mexico) up to 100 miles inland, that number goes up to 67% and includes 9 out of the 10 largest cities in the USA, or a total of approximately 216 million people. Russia has 144 million for its total population for the nation. Basically, a hit anywhere along the coastline will cause significant damage to a good number of people and more importantly, the systems which sustain them.
America runs on JIT ("just in time") inventorying. This is a method of minimizing overhead and extracting maximum profit. It works very efficiently when it works, but when it fails it causes massive system breakdowns.
This is where America’s critical logistics issues lay. American society is quite wonderful in terms of how so much is available immediately and of (at least appearing to have) pristine quality. Americans are accustomed to this and expect to be served immediately, and while it is often possible to do this, it requires massive logistical efforts that can be consistently replicated. These systems are inherently fragile because of the financial investment required in maintaining them and the need to constantly keep the “mechanical” side operating. It is a very efficient and profitably way to operate when there are no problems, but such systems do not allow for any redundancy that would naturally occur in less-efficient systems but also provide a barrier against system failure in the case of a breakdown. The current system of logistics has little redundancy at all, but when it fails for whatever reason, it can collapse other systems almost immediately.
Russia has the opposite situation. Yes, it has logistical advancements like the USA, but not always at the same rate, to the same concentration, and with the same kind of critical need to sustain said systems in order to maintain basic order. These systems are also not as efficient, but they work. In addition, the majority of the Russian people, who are accustomed to living with less and having harder lives, are able to function even if such a system were to go down because they are used to it as much as they have personal back up plans in the case of such an event. Russians simply accept this as a part of life in Russia.
Once upon a time, America valued independence from social systems. Today there are still those who do but are considered strange for doing do, and even for them, they are still in many ways system dependent. Because of the way America has been built, it is nearly impossible to avoid participation in these dependent systems. The entire “American” way of life is built on dependence, and if that were not enough, we have so much and have been taught to “want” that we fight for irrelevant, vain things if we do not get them.
Life for the common man in Russia was not easy then and it is not easy now. Understandably, it was not fun and nobody- not even the Russians- enjoyed or do enjoy such challenges. However, absence does teach a man patience, resilience, fortitude and creativity, as was the case for many Russians. While America has been very blessed, we are also lack such characteristics today and of all times at such a critical point in our history.
I remember a Russian person telling me as recently as the 1970s and 1980s before he came to America, Russians would wait in line for the last bit of mouldy bread or dried up apples. In America 2016, if the door does not open up fast enough for the “black Friday sale” at Walmart, somebody may get injured or killed. This is in addition to the many other “road rage” cases caused by small things such as getting cut in line or even not getting a helping of chicken nugget at McDonalds fast enough.
Notice the difference in these two videos as compared to the video of Russia.
Unfortunately, these are not isolated incidents. They are symptoms of the moral and spiritual decadence that has overtaken America and are manifesting themselves.
Americans shoot each other over toasters and fake food chunks. Whenever there is a power outage in a major city for a few hours, it is no secret that a near riot will ensue. If America were to be hit by a missile anywhere, the panic that would ensue would be enough to shut the whole country down.
As far as real problems are concerned, the social consequences of interrupting either the electrical delivery or even more important, the truck delivery system would result in the deaths of millions of people. How many things in America run on electricity, such as critical medical equipment and nuclear plants (fun fact: nuclear plants do NOT produce their own power, but require it from an external source)? What in America does NOT come on truck in some form? The answer is everything. If either of these systems are interrupted people may not be able to keep important power equipment on, or get their medicine in time, or get food to eat, or fuel to drive and keep the generators on that run the hospitals and nuclear plants in the event of a power outage. The potential for massive death simply as a result of the consequences of the action apart from the action itself are tremendous.
A video by an earthquake expert who goes by the handle dutchsinse on Youtube. This is a good explanation of earthquakes in the USA and specifically, the New Madrid Fault in MO.
In addition to these problems, another major problem that America has are its “natural” issues. Currently there are two major fault lines- the San Andreas in CA and the New Madrid in MO- that are under a LOT of pressure per scientists and ready to have a massive earthquake that would shut down the country. There is also the massive supervolcano at Yellowstone which again, per recent scientific studies, is long overdue for an eruption and if it did erupt it would create such an explosion that it would wipeout most of WY, MT, and ID along with large parts of UT and CO.
The recent "Blue Cut Fire" in Southern CA in August 2016. It was dangerously close to Los Angeles.
Then you have another even simpler “natural disaster” that literally would cost a dollar to start, and this is a dollar for a book of matches to start a series of forest fires. The American West is drier than ever, and while forest fires are always dangerous, recently they have been massive, such as with the Blue Cut Fire that were pushed back from the major Los Angeles metro cities of Fontana, Moreno Valley, and San Bernardino but not without considerable efforts.
If America thinks that she can invade Russia, and for the sake of argument as Harold noted let’s say that it did happen, Russia is so large and its population so distributed that it would be nearly impossible to decisively conquer and control the necessary territory as well as defeat the opposition necessary to declare victory. All Russia would have to do is what she has always done- pull back into Siberia and wait for the enemy to freeze himself out. It has worked historically, and if history is any lesson, she will do it again.
Finally, and the biggest concern for Harold, was that a war with Russia has the very likely and unintended consequence of pulling her allies into the war, specifically China.
China is outright dangerous. They have just over three times as many people as the USA, their military is seriously posing a threat to US military power in all areas, and the Chinese are aggressive. They have the literal firepower and manpower to potentially launch a ground invasion of the West Coast, and per Harold that has been a long-standing plan in the mind of Chinese nationalists. China will cut off goods to American companies and likewise, the USA will cut off food shipments to China, but such moves may not stop but rather cause further war.
The final scene from Wargames about nuclear war. In the words of "Joshua," the computer, "the only way to win is not to play."
What I have taken away from my conversations with Harold is that just like in the 1987 movie Wargames, there will be no winner in such a conflict. However, because America is physically, logistically, mentally, and spiritually weaker than the Russians, the scale of destruction that we will face will dwarf the similar horrors that Russia as well as the rest of the world will likely have to endure. Russia actually does not need to fight a war so much as knock out one of America's critical weaknesses, and the fight will likely go to her favor. All that Russia has to do is wait for America to make the first move.
Our Lady of Fatima, ora pro nobis.
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