"...nuclear weapons change the situation completely.  Using the nuclear weapons that are available at the present time in the world, one can turn up the earth itself, move mountains, and splash the oceans out of their shores.  Therefore, the tasks that can be set for the strategic operations of nuclear forces in response to an aggression are realistic, even though they may seem to be based on fantasy."

-- Colonel General P. Ivashutin, 
Strategic Operations of Nuclear Forces, 28.8.1964

    Not surprisingly, the Russians have moved tactical nuclear weapons into the Kaliningrad enclave.  Recently it was reported that inspectors were sent to the site.  Inspections, however, prove only one thing: that the weapons in question are not at any of the specific bunkers or places examined by the inspectors.  The fact, recently revealed, that Russian attack submarines (like the Kursk) are carrying nuclear warheads underscores the reality that a future conflict with Russia will be a nuclear conflict. The pre-positioning of nuclear weapons is therefore to be expected, though some might take alarm at last June's deployment to Kaliningrad.

    Are we close to a nuclear conflict today?

    Since the U.S. government has decided to reduce its nuclear arsenal by as much as 80 percent, I would say that the immediate danger of conflict is low. But three years from now, when our forces have been significantly reduced, the danger will be readily apparent. 

    At the present time, Russian probing attacks continue. Low intensity warfare against the United States is taking place on all fronts -- drugs, crime, culture, economy and on the internet. Last week the U.S. military acknowledged that a Russian-based cyber-offensive has been underway since 1998. Using seven Russian internet addresses, hackers have penetrated computers at the National Security Agency and the Pentagon. 

    The U.S. government lodged a formal complaint. As might be expected, the Kremlin did nothing. The American side, rather than making a fuss, let the matter drop. 

     Americans are not security-oriented. We are oriented toward convenience. This is a fact that anyone in the security business can verify independently. Whether your client is an industrial site, a high tech firm or the NSA, Americans hate the inconvenience of security precautions.

    If policy-makers want to understand what is wrong at the Department of Defense, at our nuclear laboratories, at the CIA, FBI and NSA, they should look at the society around them. It is a society that dislikes body searches, background checks, telephone taps and Cold War thinking.  

    Market hedonism doesn't want a crimp in its style. 

    In Russia attitudes are different. If we consider the seven nuclear reactors at Moscow's Kurchatov Institute, we find different attitudes. Ironically, the United States financed the security complex at the Kurchatov to the tune of $3 million.  Meanwhile, the security at U.S. nuclear labs is systematically neglected.

    The game is a simple one. Instead of penetrating Russia's nuclear labs with agents, we are giving them cash to assure that nobody breaks in. It seems we are afraid that Iranian or North Korea agents will steal Russian nuclear technology or nuclear materials. So we fork over billions of dollars.

    "You want to talk about nuclear blackmail?!" asked GRU defector Col. Stanislav Lunev in a 1998 interview. The Russians are blackmailing us right now, in a very subtle fashion. Give us money to safeguard our weapons so that terrorists will not steal them!

    The ultimate terrorists, however, are not in Damascus or Tehran. The real terrorists are in the Kremlin. Russia's long term intentions toward America are hostile. Consider a recent patriotic event in Moscow, where 10,000 Russian youth gathered to cheer President Putin on the first anniversary of his inauguration.

   What is this youth rally all about?  

    Russia is preparing its young people. Last fall Russian secondary schools reintroduced military training. Russian schoolchildren are now taught the basics of war. Vladimir Putin, a former KGB lieutenant colonel, has become a new hero in children's books. A Soviet-style cult of personality is developing around the Russian president. 

   Is Putin being built up as Russia's future war leader?

   Last year Putin took a ride in a military jet. He traveled under the water on a Russian attack submarine. He pushed the button on a Topol ICBM during a test launch. He visited the front in Chechnya and offered a military knife to a decorated soldier.

    At the rally in Moscow last week, Russian youth chanted patriotic slogans and carried flags as they marched along the edge of Red Square. They did not sing the new words of the Russian National Anthem. Instead, they hummed the Anthem's old music, which was Stalin's music.

    One 19-year-old Russian said, "Putin has given us hope that we will once again become a mighty country."

    Can anyone imagine an American 19-year-old fervently hoping that America remains a "mighty country"?

   Where is our patriotic youth rally?