[lapsus calami]

 

 

Another thing - Civil Defense. Has that been re-imagined, updated, since the freaking Cold War? What is the posture for that regarding local and state and fed administration and resources. Seems it has fallen to focus on natural disaster oriented events over the years, but nothing else. A year ago there was a tornado hit in a pretty good sized town near me. Thankfully no one was killed or even terribly injured but it did a fair amount of damage and chaos. I don't care what sort of accolades people crowed about on social media and elsewhere, the response by local officials was loaded with hysterics. Guess those emergency response meetings and "tabletop exercises" didn't amount to much after all in spite of the assurances they portrayed. If people will lose their crap over that I can uncomfortably imagine how command and control would break and collapse in the face of deliberate attacks.

 

 

[CatHerd]

Yes, remember how we were supposed to get a “peace dividend” after the Soviet Union dissolved and the Cold War supposedly ended? We could have invested in R&D and infrastructure and come out way ahead, with no fears of China catching up to us. We could have had a friendly Russia, but the neocons were already plotting to destroy Russia even back in the 1990s and bent on making her our enemy — and in the 21st century driving a very reluctant Russia into the arms of China. Russia will always be a distant third in the superpower department; better to have her aligned with the West than China, no?

Then the stupid neocons thought the Ukraine war and their big bad sanctions would cause Russia to disintegrate into five easy pieces they could then plunder and use as a bulwark against China. And here we are.

When we decided to go to war against terror, we squandered trillions and only proliferated terrorist groups. At the same time, as you pointed out, we did precious little to safeguard our infrastructure against emerging technologies that terrorists might employ against us. (But don’t you dare have the wrong size toothpaste in your carry on bag!)

I get what you are saying re the tornado scenario. Also, the response to the flooding in North Carolina caused by that hurricane was a disaster in itself. The Covid response was just plain nutty — but then again, it was nutty worldwide. It does leave one wondering how haphazard and ineffective the response to a drone attack on our critical infrastructure would be.