Arms Race, there was no winner.

Since we discussed Daniel Ellsberg in yesterday's post, and with President Trump's long anticipated withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal it seemed like a good time to discuss Mr. Ellsberg's early days in the pentagon.

One of the early briefings involved the SIOP (Single Integrated Operational Plan) that coordinated the use of nuclear weapons by the various branches of the US military. He was horrified.

"I thought they were the most dangerous, depraved, essentially monstrous people. They really had conducted a doomsday machine." He said, in 1961.

They were ready to use it, too. And, they had a plan, a big plan. According to the SIOP there were one hundred and seventy hydrogen and atomic weapons aimed at Moscow. If a branch of the service had a bomb they wanted to explode it over Moscow. There was only one plan and it involved launching everything, right away.

Soon, Ellsberg learned something kept secret from even his Rand associates. Certainly kept away the US public. The Soviet Union had only 4 operational intercontinental ballistic missiles at the time. America nuclear superiority was absolute.

Which led him to the startling conclusion the arms race was not with the Soviets, it was in fact between the branches of the American services. The air force was competing with the navy for defense spending priorities, shiny new weapon systems, a bigger piece of the pie. That was how you made general, or admiral.

And they ran with it. Devising more, better, bigger ways to reduce the Soviet Union to rubble. A Rand analyst, Herman Kahn, actually told SAC officers, to their faces, "Gentlemen, you don't have a war plan, you have a war orgasm." In one ear and out the other, without ever being noticed in between.

In hindsight, it might have been easy, at that point to turn back. Certainly, once the genie was out of the bottle there was no putting it back. But, there was still some hope of stopping the mad rush to apocalypse. It would have required diplomacy, common sense, cooperation, and empathy, but it might have been possible.

Yesterday, I was reminded how far down the rabbit hole we have fallen. At least nine countries, maybe more have nuclear weapons, and they all believe they need them to maintain sovereignty, peace through strength, you know. Soon, we will add Iran to the list. And the brink of the abyss gets closer every day.

"In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. Friedrich Nietzsche

No matter who's the winner we all pay the cost.

John Boehner called Ted Cruz "Lucifer in the flesh.  "I get along with almost everyone, but I have never worked with a more miserable son of a bitch in my life." Boehner said of the presidential hopeful. Lindsay Graham said of Senator Cruz, “If you killed Ted Cruz on the floor of the Senate, and the trial was in the Senate, nobody would convict you.”

Donald Trump has brought in Bobby Knight to explain how acting presidential is indefinable and explain how his Army team kicked hell out of Navy for eight straight years.

Carly Fiorina and her brand of fiery campaign assault have returned to grace our televisions. She even sang a little tune, and seemed to carry it very well, considering she can come across as such an angry unrestrained tyrant at times.

Hillary and Bernie are locked in a pitched battle over speeches and tax returns. Both candidates pretending they are not wealthy beyond the imagination of most Americans. Somehow, they hope, this will make them seem more sympathetic to the plight of a middle class slowly being crushed under the weight of the American Dream.

Honestly, you would think this kind of presidential combat would delight and thrill me. It doesn’t. The waste of time, the fantastic expense, the irreversible damage to our culture, and society are starting to demand their fee.

And, if you think that isn’t funny, here is something that isn’t even funnier. This is just American Politics of the New Millennium, the Introduction. It is going to get worse. Once the primaries are over and we have the actual candidates tearing each other to pieces over who is less likely to destroy the country then we will see the new reality.

Then we will see American Politics at its basest and most repulsive. And it is only the beginning. The Houses of Congress have not forgotten the valuable lessons learned in the government shutdown and the sequestration. It is frightening to imagine the bargaining tactics they are devising for the next president. Fortunately, the wait is almost over.

And they wonder why it is so hard to get people to vote. It seems obvious.

“Well, the emptiness is endless, cold as the clay,

You can always come back but you can’t come back all the way.”*

*Bob Dylan. Mississippi.