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Well, I guess the admiral was refering to what we later called "Mutually assured destruction", or MAD.

The part about Alas Babylon I loved the best was the old black preacher who would rant to his congegration about the great Babylon's destruction, meaning this mordern world, or even this country. I still get chills when I read Revelation chapter 18, especially in reference to this country. "10 Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come." Everything seems to fit, to me. Also, I was stationed at Cheyenne Mountain (NORAD underground command center), Colorado when I first read the book, and the stuff we did there certainly made the whole story realistic. I love the end of the world genre: the Stand, The Earth Abides, The Omega Man, and Alas Babylon.

I've not read The Omega Man or The Earth Abides, but will put them on my book list. The Stand was excellent, altho I no longer enjoy King as much as I once did. I'm pretty sure I've read others in the "end genre," but I'm hard put to name them right now. Also, there were a few TV movies, but none that even came close to Alas Babylon. I no longer own a TV, so don't know if there have been any since 911. Re-reading Alas Babylon last week, I can say it had as much an impact on me as it did when I read it years ago and time seems not to have lessened the reality of it (except maybe the technical military stuff). The only criticism I can muster up is that it fell short on developing the role of Christianity in rebuilding the nation.

Thank you for the Scripture -- it IS chilling. As a student of the Bible, I'm humbled that the Lord saw fit to answer my prayers for discernment.

Our beautiful, blessed nation, this "shining city on a hill," is in deep deep trouble, and I don't see the ship of state being re-directed to its roots.

I kind of thought maybe the admiral was dissing the whole MAD thang -- it almost seemed anti-American, which didn't fit with the rest of the story, but then again I never thought the balance of power was such a great idea for maintaining world peace either. I seem to recall Pres. Reagan making a statement about future wars being conducted on a small scale, in isolated areas (or something like that).