Russian first strike, in 1992 really?
Russia couldn’t find it’s butt with both hands and a road map in the early 1990’s. Their people were rioting, Boris (hic’) Yeltsen was ?President?, maybe.
The point I was making is we discovered we had other enemies, that needed watching, and those cards would have to be reprogrammed, or replaced with updates/new technology.
So just to say Clinton pulled the ICBM targeting cards, is an incomplete thought, and no we weren’t told if or when they were replaced, and we weren’t told who they’re pointed at now. The world needs to wonder if one is pointed at their country.
Also ICBM’s were and are becoming more and more obsolete. We have enough fire power floating around under the ocean, and in bombers stationed around the world that we can destroy the world 10-20 times over. Those weapons arrive on our enemies doorstep a lot sooner than ICBM’s
I care much more about an active working missile defense system. That scares me more than whether the ICBM’s will fly.
Our missiles were de-targeted long ago and may remain so today.
Yes, people were afraid that Russia could launch a first strike especially since it was their policy to do so if it forces were attacked with conventional weapons. No one knew the exact state of the Russian mil then in 92, nor what some angry general might do to prove the superiority of the USSR and rectify the horrible wrong the US did in collapsing the Union.
Yeltsin came to power in 91, Clinton in 93.
Clinton’s Third Way was all about making things equal militarily which is why he sold so much to China.
We discovered we have enemies when British troops landed during the Revolution. The world no longer cares if the cards are in place or the missiles pointed - everyone knows that, even if the warheads still work, no one in government today will use them no matter what. And so they laugh along with the Iranians who do have the will and desire to use them.