Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!amdcad!military From: oravax!richard@wrath.cs.cornell.edu (Richard Alan Platek) Newsgroups: sci.military Subject: Re: Future of the Military Message-ID: <27498@amdcad.AMD.COM> Date: 26 Sep 89 08:21:20 GMT Sender: cdr@amdcad.AMD.COM Lines: 26 Approved: military@amdcad.amd.com From: oravax!richard@wrath.cs.cornell.edu (Richard Alan Platek) I find discussions about the withering away of military establishments quite frightening. It reminds me of pre World War I predictions that a European war would be impossible because international trade bound the nations closely together. Periods of heightened awareness of just how close war really is are just the periods in which wars don't start; it's complacency and self-satisfaction which cause one to sleep- walk. Soviet society seems to be changing. The economic situation, on the other hand, is worsening to a degree that most Westerners can not comprehend. Where that leads who can say. Communism can easily be replaced by Great Russian chauvanism. The bottom line is that Russia dominates the Eurasian land mass, is a superpower, and has shown a greater competance in military affairs than in commercial affairs. That's the threat; not Marxist ideology. It's also sobering to recall that China's nuclear capability is third largest in the world and that the Chinese leadership have shown their criteria for violent response is not quite ours. As others have pointed out there does not appear to be any reduction in Soviet military productivity despite announced deployment reductions. While there might be conscious plan to deceive the West it is more likely that there are many factors at work in the Soviet politico-military sector some of which further Perestroika and some of which hedge their bets. In any case, as long as there are Soviet nuclear ICBMs pointed at my home town I prefer to work on SDI.