The Cold War
Not gonna even attempt a formal dissertation on that subject. Many here served, and will have their own perspective. Indeed, tomes have been written on the subject that I won’t attempt to compete with.
As far as I am concerned the “Cold Warriors” won the only battle that mattered so you can skip that part of my characterization.
My interest is only in the concept. I reckon I would like to re-define the label.
Taking our guns with no shots fired?
Opening our borders while dismissing the laws that clearly apply?
Perhaps it IS time to dredge up The Colonel:
“Most of the people in our society are sheep. They are kind, gentle, productive creatures who can only hurt one another by accident.” This is true. Remember, the murder rate is six per 100,000 per year, and the aggravated assault rate is four per 1,000 per year. What this means is that the vast majority of Americans are not inclined to hurt one another. Some estimates say that two million Americans are victims of violent crimes every year, a tragic, staggering number, perhaps an all-time record rate of violent crime. But there are almost 300 million Americans, which means that the odds of being a victim of violent crime is considerably less than one in a hundred on any given year. Furthermore, since many violent crimes are committed by repeat offenders, the actual number of violent citizens is considerably less than two million.
His data IS dated, but …
Will we win the NEXT cold war? YMMV So I’m just curious about you.
Category: Geezer Alert!
The unfortunate problem is that those same “sheeple” will have did everything in their power to disarm the sheep dog. I will keep my fangs and my other means of protecting the sheep. I guess that will make me a rouge sheep dog?!?! But, then again, the sheep I protect bear teeth as well.
Well. Quite a topic indeed.
Some of us would say that the Cold War was lost. Proof of that is in Congress today and the relative chaos on the streets of our cities. The Soviets successfully took over the education system here and educated the children of the sheeple to accept being shoved around by an all powerful government.
Sad.
I spent the majority of my less than stellar military career preparing for the Great Fulda Gap Live Fire Exercise until it was cancelled in 1989-91ish. I like to think that the Godless Commie Bastards hesitated in their plans of world conquest because they feared me and about 20,000 other pissed off Texans.
That said, my puny efforts pale into insigificance when compared to the actions of my post-9/11 protectors.
Oh, to respond to the question posted.
My faith in the United States and its people remain high. We will fight. Hell, we kill more of our fellow citizens on a long weekend than other countries kill in full-up battles.
There are still many sheep dogs who remember the oath we took. I’m not bitter, but I do cling and I remain prepared.
Many countries have had a dark period in their history. Mussolini, Hitler, Stalin, etc. ad nauseum. They all had people who followed them and applauded their every action. An active resistance existed in every case as well. Maybe it’s our turn for a little darkness. Much like the resistance in those countries, those of us resisting the current regime will not have to bear the shame. THAT belongs to the sheeple following these lunatics.
@6 — Well, said. I may steal that.
…We most certainly CAN win the next Cold War. The question is, will we want to? Our schools and media all teach one thing: it was NOT worth the effort, it stole from The Poor and The Children (TM), and that no nation on Earth could ever be against us as long as we keep to ourselves and do NOTHING that could ever be considered threatening.
We were liberators, in the best possible sense of the word. We will never be so again if our current political system remains.
Mike
MajMike,
In essance, you and many that served during the cold war were a great asset. Had you went to war, it would have been WWIII and nuclear holocaust. You remained diligent and stood strong ready for any threat that may occur, be it Soviet or other.
– A post 9/11 grunt
And though it was a Cold War, we still lost a lot of folks. The Navy Times “Seas Service Obituary” section always have 20-30 names every week. Guys lost at sea, blown off a flight deck, killed during exercises or just some freak maintenance event.
In an 18-month period, ComPatWingFive lost 3 P-3 Orions with all aboard, including two friends of mine.
But back then, the press wasn’t keeping track of our casualties because it wasn’t important to their agenda(s).
I fought the Cold War in Alaska !!!
I lost…
It’s still cold up there !!!!
Seriously, Ft. Wainwright Alaska Dec. 1974-Sept. 1976…
That really sucked up there…
I wish Gorbachev had not decided the USSR was bankrupt after Afghanistan. He didn’t even have to go in there. 23 years later, the world has lost stability in more ways than I can count.
I wish there were a way to turn back the clock.
The clock won’t turn back, the Soviet and ChiCom/North Korea threats are still there. But our worst enemy is our POTUS and his cabinet. The sheeple of this country had better wake up and SEE what is unfolding before their very eyes.
MajMike,
I was right beside you (figuratively). 31E, commo repair.
615th Maint, 2nd SupCom, 2ACR, Merrill Barracks, Nurnberg.
“You can talk about us, but you can’t talk without us.”
Zero, isn’t all data dated? That is why it is called data right? Just a matter of how reliable and up to date the data is. I think the object of the Cold War was and still is to keep adversaries such as with Iran now, on their toes. Keep them on their toes and scurrying around, conducting their bad ass chatter and sooner or later we find out exactly their capabilities. Walker and the other known and prosecuted double agents aside and doing time in federal lockup, there are the “peace time” enemies that still exist and should be kept track of. Not sure where I am going with that, my mind wanders at times…right to the infamous ivory towers of education. That’s it! Right where our youth are or appear to be most vulnerable and easily mounded. Everyone likes tossing the word socialism around like its a five cent word working on 4th and Main in downtown (insert your favorite city). The communists have had a very long time to get entrenched in the education system and exceptions to the rule aside, what we see is what we are getting. Walking talking drones.
@3C3P, the USSR no longer exists.
The east European countries like the Czech Republic and Slovakia (used to be Czechoslovakia) and Hungary are no longer an unwilling part of Russia’s long-gone Iron Curtain. They have not provided the Russian Federation with money or people for its army in 23 years.
All that remains is the federation of Russian states, which include Siberia, Chechnya, the ‘stans (provinces) like Tajikistan and Kazakhstan south of Moscow in central Asia, and they are pretty independent of Moscow, which does not supply them with food, or fuel or much of anything else. If you want to travel into or through those countries, you don’t have the former Red Army or KGB going through a train or bus looking for identity papers.
Whether you realize it or not, the USSR is gone and Russia, for all Putin’s blather and bravado, is still broke, so broke, in fact, that when peat bogs in some of the national parks ignited spontaneously in the drought last year and two years ago, there was nothing in the way of firefighting equipment or people available to put out those fires.
And Vlad Putin is not well-liked by any of the Russian people any more. The breakup of the Soviet Union (soviet means council, nothing more) brought economic chaos, unlike what has happened in China, because there was no transition and no preparation for it. Have you never heard of the war in the Balkans? Some of the people who post here were there.
Putin brought order out of the chaos. He was part of the defunct KGB, and yes, he’s been behind the scenes in Russian government now. And the Russian people wish he would just go away. They make fun of him constantly, like putting a picture of him riding that meteor across the sky.
Well, 1985-1987 I was in Landstuhl. I got it, but I never “got it,” until I took the duty train to the DDR aka, East Berlin. I get goosebumps just thinking about it. Those people were brainwashed to think they were taken care of, but they only existed. They didn’t dream, they weren’t living. The day the wall fell, we were with my “man of Honor” and his wife. We all cried, and just kept saying “Holy Shit!”
Of supporting and defending, the oath is something that is in my heart. I may be Pollyanna much of the time, to keep hoping for the good, but I am always ready to take action, like MajMike–a sheep dog until the end.
Freuen Sie sich auf Sie Ihre Gemeinde und Lernen einige in den Prozess.