The Cold War is back
It’s like old times, unfortunately
WHEN picking up a copy of today’s edition of Arkansas’ Newspaper, the headlines could have come from any earlier decade when Americans and Russians were facing off in the Cold War that lasted for decades, occasionally turning hot in sore spots like Korea and Lebanon. Isn’t this where we all came in? And isn’t it time we turned off this replay that offers little but tears, toil and sweat, not to mention a new cast of widows and orphans?
The signs are not good for peace and good will as the Year of Our Lord 2018 begins, and how it will end no one can be sure. But a treasure of wise counsel awaits revisiting—including the advice of this country’s first president, who suggested that the best way to preserve the peace was to be prepared for war.
This much is evident: The Russians now have stepped up their snooping around this country’s undersea cables in the North Atlantic. In turn, this country is planning to revive a command that was shut down after the Cold War. And in general the North American Treaty Organization—NATO for short—is moving to revive its capacity to conduct anti-submarine patrols and develop aircraft capable of detecting submarines that may be snooping on Allied communications.
Take the experts’ word for it when it comes to the increasing danger represented by Russian naval force: “We are now seeing Russian underwater activity in the vicinity of undersea cables that I don’t believe we have ever seen,” says U.S. Navy Rear Admiral Andrew Lennon, commander of NATO’s submarine fleet. “Russia is clearly taking an interest in NATO and NATO nations’ undersea infrastructure.”
Britain’s chief military commander has warned that this new/old threat could imperil the cables that sustain the modern, globalized economy. These privately owned lines occupy some of the same undersea pathways as the very first trans-Atlantic telegraph systems did back in 1858, but now they are massive, vital strands of the Internet itself. Disruption of the cables could interfere with daily trade on the Internet—to the tune of trillions of dollars. Call it commercial sabotage.
“It’s a pattern of activity, and it’s a vulnerability,” warns British Air Chief Marshal Stuart Peach. “Can you imagine a scenario where those cables are cut or disrupted, which would then immediately and potentially catastrophically affect both our economy and other ways of living if they were disrupted?” Yes, it’s easy to imagine, much easier to imagine than prevent.
As for the Russians, they have no comment to make on all these developments, preferring to remain silent as their undersea patrols, silent as sonar. Ping, ping, ping . . . they approach. Close and closer. Listen. No, you can’t hear them. But they’re out there.