Feeling Safe?

As Americans in the modern era, we feel pretty safe. During WWII, for example, the lights of New York blazed bright, radio beacons beckoned, radio radiated clearly… as Nazi submarines began to wait offshore to pick off transport ships with munitions, fuel oil and troops, grateful to the lackadaisical Americans continuing daily life with relatively few changes. For a while, the Navy didn’t even posit a defense to these torpedo attacks, preferring instead to focus on escorting ships across the Atlantic. Pearl Harbor and a small invasion in the Aleutians were as close to a full-frontal assault on our nation as we faced.

We really didn’t feel any direct attacks of significance here on our soil until our involvement in the Middle East, protecting oil fields and providing massive aid to regional allies. All the fighting and “bad stuff” were happening “over there.” But in the early 1990s and certainly on 9/11/01 we were deeply disturbed when Islamic terrorists, mostly under the al Qaeda flag, brought those attacks to our shores, killing thousands of Americans in New York City, with more than a few more in the fields of Pennsylvania and at the Pentagon.

We still hear the admonitions from Islamic terrorists – from Boko Haram, al Shabab, ISIS and even from al Qaeda – that the Great Satan (i.e., the United States) is their number one enemy. Our destruction is their most cherished goal. But these days, those forces are facing their own regional confrontations and failures. Climate change has decimated their local food chain, and internecine warfare is depleting their ranks. While we remain vigilant, the FBI has made it abundantly and repeatedly clear, our main terrorist threat today is from within, primarily from White nationalists. Many nations believe that the United States will unravel and self-destruct from our deep partisan divide in a country with more guns than people.

Americans tend to believe that “mutually assured destruction” (MAD) protects us from an apocalyptic nuclear confrontation with our foreign antagonists, led by Russia, China, North Korea and Iran – all nuclear weapons powers or on the verge of becoming such a power. But there are a range of recent developments that should temper our notion of safety. First and foremost, each of these consequential foes is led by an entrenched, ego-driven leader, reveling in growing power, ready to sacrifice his (yes his) people to ensure a strong military who appears to be dedicated to toppling or belittling the current king of the mountain: the United States.

It no secret that all four of these countries are interrelated and allied in significant ways. North Korea cannot exist without the trade routes and support from China. China and Russia bellied up to the autocratic bar and shared a stiff ideological drink of togetherness, and Iran has taken to supplying Russia with missiles and drones in support of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. Each of these countries is deeply hostile to the United States, choosing to do whatever they can to oppose our interests everywhere. But the specific reports we are seeing suggest that we still have much more to fear from those four countries, each of which is attempting to expand its reach to nations around the world.

“North Korea displayed an unprecedented number of long-range nuclear missiles at a military parade, in an effort to show the country is mass producing weapons capable of striking the U.S… The parade, which was held Wednesday [2/8] night in Pyongyang, featured at least 11 [12?] Hwasong-17 intercontinental ballistic missiles and a prototype of a new missile designed for faster deployment, state media photos showed. North Korea has never showcased that many nuclear missiles at one time. The show of force appeared to be aimed at demonstrating the advances the country has made in its missile production capabilities, analysts said.” Dasl Yoon writing for the February 9th Wall Street Journal.

But here’s the catch. We are pretty sure that these new missiles are capable of reaching our west coast. The above noted parade, showed off “up to 12 individual Hwasong-17 ICBM launchers. The U.S. has just 44 missile interceptors on America's West Coast, with some stationed in California and others in Alaska, according to Politico… If the 12 ICBMs carry a payload of four warheads each, they would overwhelm America's prepared defenses, according to the report.” Fox News, February 9th. Fire more missiles than there are defenses to shoot them down?

As we back Ukraine in its resistance to Russia’s invasion, high-ranking Russians are beginning to refer to the conflict as a “hybrid war,” the effective beginning of WWIII. In addition to supplying increasingly sophisticated weapons to Kyiv, including our recent commitment to supply our state-of-the-art Abrams battle tanks to Ukraine, the United States is more actively and directly involved in the combat itself than assumed. “Ukrainian officials said they require coordinates provided or confirmed by the United States and its allies for the vast majority of strikes using its advanced U.S.-provided rocket systems, a previously undisclosed practice that reveals a deeper and more operationally active role for the Pentagon in the war...

“A senior U.S. official — who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue — acknowledged the key American role in the campaign and said the targeting assistance served to ensure accuracy and conserve limited stores of ammunition for maximum effectiveness. The official said Ukraine does not seek approval from the United States on what to strike and routinely targets Russian forces on their own with other weapons. The United States provides coordinates and precise targeting information solely in an advisory role, the official said.” Washington Post, February 9th. Russia has backed out of nuclear weapons limitation commitments and has indicated that the use of tactical (more narrowly targeted) nuclear weapons is now on the table.

Moscow has pledged revenge against the United States without naming specifics. But Russian state television has openly admitted that Moscow intends to do everything in its power to unseat an anti-Russian Democratic Party and to enlist grassroots in nations, particularly in Latin America, to increase anti-American sentiments. We can expect worse.

Meanwhile, the anti-Chinese rhetoric from the White House, the active enlistment of Japan to build an offensive military, our military aid and exercises with South Korea, our ban of many high-level tech sales to the PRC and a unanimous Congressional vote against China over their spy-balloon have President Xi authorizing a larger and more frequent menacing PRC military sea and air power in areas adjacent to Taiwan, often very narrowly missing US military aircraft and ships. They have only upped their coveted lust over Taiwan itself.

To make matters worse, those “red phone” emergency connections between the US and the PRC are no longer part of any attempt to deescalated incidents that could explode. On February 10th, the Associated Press reported: “Within hours of an Air Force F-22 downing a giant Chinese balloon that had crossed the United States, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin reached out to his Chinese counterpart via a special crisis line, aiming for a quick general-to-general talk that could explain things and ease tensions… But Austin’s effort Saturday fell flat, when Chinese Defense Minister Wei Fenghe declined to get on the line, the Pentagon says.

“China’s Defense Ministry says it refused the call from Austin after the balloon was shot down because the U.S. had ‘not created the proper atmosphere’ for dialogue and exchange. The U.S. action had ‘seriously violated international norms and set a pernicious precedent,’ a ministry spokesperson was quoted as saying in a statement issued late Thursday [2/9].” With all this anger, the numerous incidents of physical confrontation, hateful exchanges and de facto disconnect, what could possibly go wrong, go wrong, go wrong….?!

I’m Peter Dekom, and it does not help that the reportage in each of these nations uses footage from our protests, the January 6th Capitol attack and the extremist Tweets from American elected officials to convince its people that democracy cannot work and that the United States is on the verge of collapsing, perhaps with a little push from these antagonists.