The Cold War Mindset

The disclosure yesterday by Pentagon officials that an American aircraft carrier, United States Ship Nimitz, was "buzzed" over the weekend by a Russian Tu-95 Bear Bomber is a reminder of the dangers of the world in which we live. The Navy scrambled four F/A-18 "Hornet" fighter jets over the Pacific and intercepted the Russian bomber, escorting it out of the area. The Pentagon's American Forces Press Service reported that 22 Japanese jets also scrambled in response to the incident.

What struck us in respect of all this was the comments of the vice chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, General James Cartwright of the Marines, who told the Senate Budget Committee, "Now what we are concerned about is, 'What are the indications of this return to a Cold War mindset?'… What are the implications of that activity, and how do we best address that?"

It is something to think about. One of the things about the Cold War at the time is not everyone thought it was a real war and not everyone thought it was a "good war" and not everyone thought we were going to win; indeed, there was talk of peaceful coexistence between the West an its adversaries. This went on for decades, but when victory came, and those living in the communist bloc were freed, people began to feel more comfortable with the proposition that there was a right side in the war and we were on it. The vigilance of our military and covert services began to look ever more heroic.

The latest incident, coming just weeks after American warships in the Persian Gulf were challenged by boats of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, highlights the challenges facing American forces on the high seas, challenges that were met for years and years during the Cold War. If Russia, led by a former KGB lieutenant colonel named Vladimir Putin, is returning to a Cold War mindset, America, too, must be on guard. There's a broad bipartisan consensus on this; even Senator Obama, the most dovish of the presidential candidates, wants to expand the American military. "Obama will increase the size of ground forces, adding 65,000 soldiers to the Army and 27,000 Marines," his Web site declares.

Our top politicians are mostly aware of the threats America faces, as is the military leadership. It is important that the absence of major terrorist attacks on American soil not invite a drift into a comfortable peacetime mindset. We aren't calling for a return to backyard bomb shelters, but if our potential enemies are back in war mindsets, and America is in a peace mindset, it raises the potential of a disastrous mismatch.