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MSgt Solutions Architect/Software Developer/Blockchain Hobbyist
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Maj Kevin "Mac" McLaughlin
Maj Kevin "Mac" McLaughlin
8 y
This reads "We Estimate". A UN product would not likely know the actual response time of the US military.
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CW4 Guy Butler
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I tell ya, kids these days got it easy. Back when I was growing up, we didn't have computers, or the Internet, or tvs with more than 4 or 5 channels you could watch. What we did have, though, was things like Walter Cronkite. And the Soviet Union. And nuclear weapons - lots and lots of nuclear weapons. And these things called "launch on warning" and "mutual assured destruction".

And we knew the Commies (and they really were Communists back then) had all these missiles, these "ICBMs" targeted at us (and we knew what ICBM stood for), because Walter and the President told us so. And we knew that those ICBMs could be launched and hit the US in 30 minutes or less (12 minutes or so for a sub launched missile "decapitation" strike on Washington DC), because Walter and the President told us so. And we knew that the Soviet Union had enough nukes to wipe us out 5 or 6 times over, because, well, you get the idea.

And because we knew all that, we also knew about Launch on Warning, that the US would retaliate with OUR missiles as soon as we knew the Commies had launched, in order to make sure the Soviet Union didn't take over the world. And because we could still do SIMPLE FRIGGIN' MATH back then, we knew the President would have only minutes - around 4 or so - to decide whether to retaliate with our full nuclear arsenal because our missiles had to be launched before the Soviet missiles detonated - because their flight times were 30 minutes or less. That's also where we got "Mutual Assured Destruction", by the way.

And because we knew the President only had minutes to decide whether or not an attack was real, we worried that some private (on either side) would mistake a flock of birds for a missile crossing the DEW line (that's "Distant Early Warning"; lines of radar sites across northern Canada and Alaska that Walter would tell us about periodically), so we worried about accidental nuclear war, too. Then came SALT I, SALT II, START, de targeting, retaliation after ride-out, and now New START, and now everyone's forgotten about MAD, LoW, and 4 friggin' minutes.

(Sigh) Kids these days...
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CPT Jack Durish
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Don't worry, it was probably just a lie
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1stSgt Nelson Kerr
1stSgt Nelson Kerr
8 y
Your imagination aside it was a simple statement of known and published fact.
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CPT Jack Durish
CPT Jack Durish
8 y
1stSgt Nelson Kerr - I'm beginning to think that truth can be transformed into a lie simply by having Hillary speak it
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MSG Stan Hutchison
MSG Stan Hutchison
8 y
CPT Jack Durish - I'm beginning to think that some folks believe everything said about Hillary, regardless be it truth of not.
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1stSgt Nelson Kerr
1stSgt Nelson Kerr
8 y
CPT Jack Durish - Preraps that should lead to you talk over your biases with the guy in the mirror. He will not let you bullshit yourself.
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