They Didn't Mean to Obliterate

They Didn’t Mean to Obliterate Seattle, Honest
Bill Gertz again, this time with a report on Russian nuclear weapons and material “security” in today’s Washtington Times. The usual scary stuff here, only with more detail than we usually get out of the Russian military.

Gertz writes, “an unauthorized or accidental missile launch is ‘highly unlikely’ as long as the current safeguards are enforced and the central political authority exists.”

And now you know why I don’t worry about Putin’s sometimes heavy-handed ways. Until there are some real human institutions undergirding Russian society, they need a semi-authoritarian center. And a strong Moscow is safer for us, too. For a better explanation of why, go read Andrew Sullivan’s Book Club for February. Or better yet, pick yourself up a copy of Robert Kaplan’s The Coming Anarchy or Warrior Politics.

I haven’t read his Eastward to Tartary yet, but that’s next on the bedside reading list. Kaplan makes excellent reading — if you like scary peeks into the future. His fraternal twin in the world of fiction is the equally-excellent Ralph Peters. His novel Flames of Heaven is quite simply some of the finest literature of the ’90s — and sadly out of print. Worth the hunt for a used copy.