DADvocate

Reading a post by Patrick Armstrong at HurricaneRadio that begins

For the last four days I've gone to bed with the knowledge that when I wake up, the whole world may be at war again.

my mind immediately leaped to memories of the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Cold War. During the crisis I was 11 years old, old enough to understand the destructive power of an atomic bomb but not old enough to understand international politics.

Living in Knoxville, Tennessee, my school and home were within the thermonuclear blast range of Oak Ridge where weapons grade uranium is produced and other top secret activities go on. At school we were given handbooks describing the effects of nuclear bombs, radiation, etc. We were trained to hide or hit the floor at once when the flash of an atomic bomb was seen. Driving home after school we could see bomb shelters being sold in grocery store parking lots. Newspapers and TV news anchors gave graphic descriptions of the pain, suffering, death and destruction that would ensue with a nuclear attack.

I had nightmares for 15 years where I was in a room and suddenly there would be a flash outside so bright the window was a giant strobe light. I would always wake up with a start. I never slept till the shock wave arrived.

This is no way to live, or sleep. But what do you do about it? It makes no sense that the insane leaders of Iran and North Korea believe there is something to be gained through their actions unless mutual destruction is a goal. But, in the past mad men have led the world to the edge of the abyss when to the sane eye their actions would clearly create nothing good.

I'm still not old enough to understand international politics.