![]() The gradual ending of the programs created after the Cold War to help Russia deal with the legacy of the arms race has been a long time in the making. We’re basically telling Klaatu: “Get out of here, and try not to let the space hatch hit your ass on the way out.” That’s why I was so bummed when I read Bryan Bender’s Boston Globe story, based on documents and first-person accounts, of a mid-December meeting in Moscow that signals the end of U.S.-Russia cooperation to secure vulnerable nuclear materials. That recognition helps us see other shared interests, like preventing nuclear accidents and avoiding miscalculation by which we might stumble into Armageddon. Nuclear terrorism may be unlikely, but it’s far more plausible than Russian President Vladimir Putin waking up and thinking that today seems like a good day for a nuclear war. I’ve always thought that nuclear-armed terrorists fill the same role as Klaatu - Osama bin Laden with the bomb illustrates our shared interest with the Russians in preventing nuclear war. (Sadly, I suspect there’d be plenty of alien collaborators, but let’s not ruin a nice allegory.) Anyway, Colin Powell always figured Reagan was thinking about The Day the Earth Stood Still when he made that comment. President Ronald Reagan used to comment - much to the embarrassment of certain advisors - that maybe it would take the arrival of aliens to cause human beings to unite and abolish nuclear weapons. Think of him as a staged version of Albert Einstein’s famous remark about nuclear weapons having changed everything, save our modes of thinking. ![]() Klaatu may have looked ridiculous, but he was a great device for understanding the idea that nuclear weapons pose a common danger to humanity. Since human beings had developed nuclear weapons and space rockets - basically, the technological capability to become interplanetary assholes - the rest of the universe had run out of patience with our barbarity. The best sci-fi movie to tackle the subject of nuclear weapons was the 1951 film The Day the Earth Stood Still, in which an alien named Klaatu travels to Earth with a warning - eliminate war, or be eliminated. Our idea of critical remove is a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away. Bertolt Brecht used the term Verfremdungseffekt, or “alienating effect,” to describe theatrical techniques that allow audiences to view events on stage with a certain critical remove. And nuclear weapons are really depressing. We like to discuss really awkward or heavy topics using science fiction. You know, extraterrestrials? E.T.? ALF? Bear with me here for minute. This article is being republished due to reader interest.Moscow is ending cooperation with the United States to secure nuclear material in Russia. He is the author of the graphic novels War Fix, War Is Boring and Machete Squad. ![]() Plan or no, Russia is bound to join America on the front lines in the First Alien War, according to Springer.ĭavid Axe served as Defense Editor of the National Interest. ![]() “Keep in mind many of the greatest civilizations in human history formed to counter a common enemy,” Springer pointed out. Springer said former rivals could become close allies, even unified. Combined, the two countries could field huge air, land, sea and space forces numbering thousands of warplanes, millions of soldiers, hundreds of ships and most of the world’s spacecraft.Īssuming Earth survives and wins, human society could be turned upside down. The aliens, meanwhile, would probably target Earth’s communications networks and its most potent weapons, nukes, Springer said.Īs the world’s leading military powers, America and Russia would be the biggest targets … and the leaders in the eventual counterattack. After that, “learn as much about the enemy as possible.” Presumably with spy satellites, drones, electronic eavesdroppers and old-fashioned sneaking around. In the event of an alien invasion, “the first thing you would need to try to do is preserve your forces,” Springer said. After all, the Pentagon wouldn’t know anything about the attackers until the first laser bolt or disrupter blast or photon torpedo was fired and Earth forces were already in retreat. “We make all kinds of contingency and war plans,” Springer said.īut America’s interstellar war plan is surely pretty thin. program in 2012 that Washington has plans for even the least likely military threats-including attackers from beyond the solar system. Air Command and Staff College in Alabama, told an Australian T.V. Paul Springer, a history teacher at the U.S. The Pentagon isn’t taking any chances, if one U.S. Scientists are also listening for radio broadcasts from far-away civilizations.
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