People were offended when I referred to Dr Strangelove in some previous posts. But did anyone catch Senator Angus King last Tuesday? King didn’t wait for someone to bring up Dr Strangelove, he channeled it himself.
King was lecturing one of the spooks on the panel about the absolute necessity of retaliating against the Russians. “Can you assure me that we are retaliating?” Not satisfied that the full answer would have to wait until the Senators and the spooks could utilize the cone of silence, or with the reassuring winks from the panelists–the Senator forged ahead.
“Do they know that we are retaliating? They have to know. That’s where it went wrong in Dr Strangelove. You with the Doomsday machine. . . ”
Ah so THAT’S were it went wrong! Do you think the panelists will be able to replicate the plot of Dr Strangelove, this time with better-communicated retaliation and a happy ending?
Check it out on the CSPAN archives. If Angus King gets his way, the intelligence agencies will literally be taking advice from a Peter Sellars character.
I took it more as King asking for Congressional oversight regarding what retaliation our intelligence agencies have pursued against Russia. President Obama claimed that we retaliated against them with our cyber campaign. Members of the Trump Administration (notably not Mr. Trump himself) have made similar claims including the CIA and DNI Directors. Knowing exactly what we have done, figuring how what we can/should do, is exactly what a member of Congress should be asking. I will agree that this analogy was an awkward and dated reference. The ‘doomsday machine’ could be a cyber attack the likes of which we have never encountered. We will not know until we ask.
The intelligence side of this new cold war will be fought almost entirely in cyberspace. Sadly, Ukraine and Syria demonstrate that the old days of proxy wars are back, with deadly consequences for the people caught in the middle.