Maybe now Europe is wishing they'd taken a greater interest in their own defense over the last 60+ years

For more than 60 years, while Europeans spent their defense money on generous social programs, beer, wine, cheese, fine autos and cameras, the US of A provided it security from the Soviet bear.  Ronald Reagan killed the bear.  Europe continued its party.  With the election of a very unserious and naïve dope in the person of King SFB himself, the Americans have joined the party.  Right now the only one in the room who is not drunk, dancing shirtless with a lamp shade on his head is Vald Putin, which given the Russian propensity for vodka and Putin’s own proclivity to go topless is an accomplishment.

Now Putin is having his way with a Europe that is dependant on him for their energy needs and unable to lift a finger to defend themselves or exert their will on a resurgent Russia.  Somewhere there’s an old German man walking his dog to his favorite beer hall where he’ll sit and sip a fine pils while telling his mates it was foolishness to trust the Americans with Germany’s defense.

In sign of just how surely screwed we are, we are relying on well known liar and Cambodian War hero John Francois Kerry to avoid disaster in Crimea.  That’s probably the primary reason former SecDef Gates referred to Crimea as “lost.”  So Lord Horseface is negotiating an end to the Crimea crisis with Russian foreign Minister Lavrov.  Lavrov should show up at the negotiation with his “reset button” in one hand and a black beret (like the one Kerry carries in his brief case to remind him of his faux heroics in Cambodia) throw them both on the table in front of Horseface and ask, “OK where would you like to start?”  Lavrov has to know, with Kerry, he’s dealing with a total azz licking light weight.

Now, picture Lavrov sitting across the table from John Bolton who has just announced missile deployments to eastern Poland, EuCom’s mobile Headquarters being moved to Warsaw, a large US Special Forces deployment to Kiev, and the largest NATO joint exercise in history to be conducted in Poland.

Oh, and if it were Bolton sitting across from Lavrov, that old German man would be sipping his fine pils and telling his mates, “Those crazy Americans don’t take $h!t from anyone.”

Flight 370
It seems we’re always guarding against the last terrorist attack.  I do not think if Islamo-Terror-Fascists have a 777 at their disposal, they will fly it into a building.  Everyone has theory or two or five or ten.  Here’s my most dangerous scenario.  The Iranians with the aid of the North Koreans use the plane to initiate a high altitude burst (HAB) of a nuclear device over the east coast of the US.

Such an explosion would be devastating.  The theory is that a HAB attack will kill all computer assisted activities.  They would just come to an immediate halt.  Everything from trains, planes and automobiles to electric plants, telephone service and water treatment plants would all shut down.  The area affected by such an attack would be a function of the strength or the device and altitude of the detonation.

Right now, the plane is on an island or other isolated location somewhere waiting for the NK or Iranian sub or fishing boat to show up with the device.  It is probably NOT at one of the over 600 known airstrips capable of handling a 777 within range of flt 370 when it went missing.  People planning such an attack are not going to get busted by Joe Nobody who flew into the isolated strip at Bongo Bonga for $100 hamburger on Saturday and noticed the tail of a Malaysian 777 hanging out of a hanger for the first time ever.

The plane will slowly be positioned to a point where it can marry up with another 777 on a routine scheduled flight to America from wherever.  At that point the planes will fly in formation to appear as one on radar, or perhaps they will pull a switcheroo.  The scheduled plane turns off the transponder and disappears being replaced almost immediately by the flt 370 777.  Then when it has penetrated US airspace it makes a mad dash to the location designated for HAB attack and detonates.

Sadly this scenario leaves no hope for the 239 souls on board flight 370.  They were long ago victims of high altitude oxygen epoxy when whoever hijacked the flight either depressurized the cabin or shut off the oxygen to the cabin.  This may account for sudden climb from 35,000 feet to 45,000 feet.

If I were the FAA and NORAD I’d be running 10,000 computer simulations for this type of attack and how to prevent it.  But hey, if some dope in his PJs in Ft. Wayne, IN figured this out, certainly it has crossed one of the great minds at NORAD.  Right?

Anyway, it’d make for a pretty good story for the next Mission Impossible or the next Jack Ryan movie.