Ask Not For Whom The Bomb Falls—It Falls For Thee!

Back in the early 1960s, when the "Cold War" was in full swing, we college boys would sit around, smoke our Kaywoodie pipes (thus demonstrating that we were "cool") and argue about such heady subjects as where the first Soviet bombs would fall. Some said Washington, DC, the seat of guvmint. Others opined it would be the financial center, New York, NY. One of us—I forget who—said it would be the transportation centers, such as Atlanta. If I remember right, we didn’t pay much attention to him. He didn’t even have a Kaywoodie. That was over four decades ago. No nuclear bomb has fallen in anger in the entire world since then, but if that argument arose today, I would pay more attention to the transportation center theory. As I write this, Israel has attacked Lebanon and the first bombs struck the Beirut airport. They were conventional—not nuclear—but their purpose was to cripple transportation. Transportation is more important now than in the 1960s. I am told—by a friend who used to live there—that Lebanon is very much dependent upon outside trade for goods and services, much of which is flown in. So are we, and so is the rest of the world. Busting up the world’s airports might very well be high on the target list. Today others would surely argue in favor of the communication (read: computer) centers. With my luck, I’ll probably be using my laptop at a major airport. I don’t have a chance. We'd love to post your comments. Please click on the comment box at the top.