Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Idea Of The Day -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: IQBAL LATIF who wrote (46775)	8/1/2004 11:46:04 AM
From: IQBAL LATIF	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 50167

The kind of threat we live within... In 1995, when most Americans thought the nuclear nightmare was over, we came close to a nuclear exchange with Russia. And it all happened entirely by accident. Russia's early warning system mistook a US/Norwegian research rocket for a missile attack from one of America's nuclear submarines off the coast of Norway. Russians, for reasons unknown, had never received Norway's notification of the launch. As the four-stage rocket made it's ascent, it looked on Russian radar as if it were turning towards Russia. As the upper stages of the rocket broke apart, the Russian radar operators concluded that the several blips were the multiple warheads of an incoming ballistic missile. President Boris Yeltsin was informed that a nuclear missile was speeding towards the heart of Russia. Russian nuclear forces, already on a hair-trigger alert, were put on even higher alert, ready to launch at his command. The fate of the planet hung in the balance as hundreds of millions of people were going about their daily lives. Russian policy called for a "launch on warning." "Use them or loose them." Yeltsin wisely waited. And within those fateful moments, the Russians were able to declare a false alarm. An unimaginable nuclear disaster had barely been avoided. This illustrates the grave danger that confronts humanity today: launch of a nuclear missile by accident or miscalculation. According to experts, it is a danger that has increased since 1995 with the further disintegration of the Russian government. Amy Lesser, On-line Director for the Center for Environmental Citizenship, works with young people to teach them about environmental issues. LESSER: When I heard about the accident, or almost accident in 1995, I was terrified. I had no idea that situations like this existed. It wasn't exactly surprising, since I'm fairly aware of the disintegration of the Russian infrastructure and government...and I have been generally worried about whose hands our nuclear, the Russian nuclear weapons fall into. But I had no idea that it had actually escalated to the point where we almost had a nuclear disaster in this country. NARRATOR: Admiral Stansfield Turner, former Director of the Central Intelligence Agency: TURNER: The danger is, first of all, mistakes, miscalculation, that they misinterpret something that's going on somewhere and they deliberately launch a nuclear weapon or several. The second is they lose control of themselves, the whole system breaks down. I mean Russia is disintegrating. It's entirely possible that these weapons will now be under control of the provincial governors, not the central government. And now we're in a different world. I mean these people are not probably sophisticated and who knows what they will do? A third problem is accidents. When you have weapons of this magnitude that are deteriorating, they can deteriorate to the point where they launch accidentally or something. NARRATOR: Because of the overall decline of Russian conventional military forces, Russia's war planners now rely more heavily on their nuclear arsenal to deter aggression. But that arsenal and especially its warning systems, are in a sorry state. Russia's feeling of military inferiority - heightened by the expansion of NATO and the war against Yugoslavia, Russia's ally - has caused them to set their nuclear deterrent on a very short fuse. Today, nuclear war between the U.S. and Russia is more likely to occur by accident or miscalculation than by a deliberate decision. The danger is not unique to Russia: In November 1979, duty officers at four separate U.S. command centers reported seeing a full-scale missile attack against the United States. TURNER: President Carter's national security advisor was awakened one night at 3 o'clock in the morning and told there were several thousand missiles coming at us across the Pacific Ocean. It turned out it was a total mistake. NARRATOR: The false alarm was the result of a training tape being run as a demonstration for a United States senator and being mistaken for an actual missile attack.