On a Sunday many decades ago, families awoke and prepared to go to Church on an little island known as Pearl Harbor. While Sunday services were held, we suddenly found ourselves in one of the most pivotal war-actions in the 20th century, thrust into a global war the likes of which we had never seen before.
Like those before us, today we too found our way to churches across the nation. But now, unlike those in our prior generations we find ourselves confronted with a new national emergency the likes of which we have never seen: nuclear war.
It won’t be 3,000 lives lost; but it might be 300 million. For this morning, the Russian Federation placed its Strategic Nuclear Forces into "Special Combat Mode."; full alert for potential nuclear combat.
In Russia, SCM is the formal declaration/step necessary before an actual launch command can be issued. Consequently, this is also the level at which the United States begins to engage its own DEFCON operations (although technically we are always at alert status) – which means right now, NORAD is fervently running through pre-launch check lists, preparing our own missiles for potential targeting. But thankfully, just pushing a button or turning a key and launching a nuke is something one man cannot do alone.
Our own launch systems have a system-wide safeguard called "PAL” or, permissive action links". So even if two men in a nuclear silo went totally nuts and decided to try and end the world by launching a missile on their own, the launch would fail because you've got a PAL in the silo. And PAL can’t permit a missile launch without permission from the DOD, and that system must have in turn received the order from the President, before PAL green lights anything. Thankfully, our PAL prevent us from tragedy.
In Russia, secondary approval by the civilian authority is required to order SCM activation, before any of Russia's nuclear missiles can fuel. No SCM - no activation. Russia controls their nuclear arsenal very tightly, knowing this is not a game. But that said, the lock on their nukes isn‘t quite as rigid as ours. And now, after a weekend of new, harsh economic sanctions, Russia suddenly finds its national banking system locked out of SWIFT. This is a terminal blow for the Russian economy, since international payments have now been fully frozen. And this, while Russia watches NATO send shipments of lethal weapons into Ukraine. In short, the Russians awoke to a sudden, grim reality: they think NATO is rearing its massive war machine – and feel their time to respond is very limited. Of course, their ability to negotiate anything just became extremely narrow, with the new sanctions imposed - albeit short of threatening use of nuclear weapons against western nations. So, this morning, because of new sanctions and other highlighted political and military factors, the rest of the world woke up facing down the activation of Russia’s nuclear armed forces.
With Russia backed into a corner & cut off from much of the western world, Putin realizes they must either fight it out now while they still have a chance to win, or potentially be put into a position where they won't be able to fight at all. In which case, Russia would stand defeated. And a defeated nation always gets carved up piecemeal, split among the victors. And Putin understands this - that a defeated Russia would likely be carved up like a birthday cake, with strategic pieces absorbed into bordering NATO countries. Russia would cease to exist.
With the Russian viewpoint that they’re already facing annihilation, desperate times call for desperate measures. Putin knows the massive new economic sanctions will destroy their economy & the ruined economy will destroy the country, throwing Russia into a state of political and economic turmoil not seen since the Bolshevik revolution. So of course the Russian viewpoint is they must act violently in reply. They have to – there is no other choice left.
And so, this Sunday morning, while much of us slept peacefully, the world was put on nuclear notice: Russia's Strategic Nuclear Forces stand ready to execute a full nuclear strike.
As an aside to this article, China - (Russia's new ally) just issued a statement, calling the USA the real threat to the world. Thru this language, I would surmise China would side with Russia in the event of a nuclear exchange.
But what comes next is anyone's guess.
One thing tho for certain tho - if you haven't been heeding my prior advice on stockpiling some food and sundries, now would certainly be a really good time to start.