We hear
stories of spies stealing secrets. Right
now we can go to the movies and see the latest James Bond movie to be
released. It is not often however, that
we hear about secrets being accidentally released by the country who is trying
to keep it a secret. That is exactly
what just happened though. Russian
President Vladimir Putin was giving a speech and on the podium were diagrams of
a secret Russian weapon. This weapon was
never produced, which is quite a good thing.
This weapon would be very bad for the world if it were ever
created. What this weapon is exactly is
an unmanned submarine that carries a thermonuclear bomb into a port, such as
New York City, and can detonate it without ever being detected (New York Times). The destruction would be catastrophic to the
economy, the loss of life, as well as making the area uninhabitable for a very
long time.
I think that the direction that
Russia is headed is a very dangerous one.
Currently we are not on the best of terms with Russia. Could this potentially send this relationship
down a rockier path? Why would Russia
even want a weapon with such capabilities?
From the research that I have done specifically on Vladmir Putin for my
PSC 201 project, I do not think that Putin’s goals are to be friends with the
United States. This weapon would help
Putin with his ultimate goal. This
being, put Russia back on the map as a very major player.
When you think about Russia, they
are still kind of finding their ground in the political arena since the fall of
the Soviet Union. In other words, they
just are not on the same level as a political power as they once were. But, if they were to make this unmanned
submarine operational, it would be a game changer for the globe.
Was this leak of information truly on
accident though? The New York Times
suggests that maybe it was not an accident.
I would have to agree with them.
We know that Russia has made a lot of advances in the way of the international
political arena the last couple of years.
Ukraine was truly a disaster for international politics. The hands of many different politicians in
many different countries were tied.
Unfortunately Russia was left unchecked for their aggressive actions in
Ukraine and the Crimea region. With a
weapon such as the one that was leaked, Russia would have much more leverage on
the table. They could be using this old
plan as a pawn to scare the west into rolling over on something that Russia
wants. They could trade not building
this weapon for something else. Truly it
is a very smart plan. Everything that
Vladimir Putin does is very well calculated and thought out. Russia then confirmed that these were in fact
what they were suspected to be when they were aired on television. Putin would not have had them on the podium
if he was worried that they may be leaked by the news reporters taping him. No, this was very much intentional. Ultimately I think this was a message to the
west that he is very serious and not to be taken lightly.
What can Obama do about this
weapon? I am not sure what it is that
can be done. How do you stop something
that you cannot detect, can slip in, and cause mass destruction? It truly is going to be an issue that maybe
Obama does not ever have to deal with.
We might see this put onto the plate of the new President after the
upcoming election. We may need to
develop some sort of sonar that is used in the ports across the country to
detect incoming foreign objects. The
problem would be then, what would we do if we detected something like this
trying to enter one of our ports? We
would need to develop a plan of some sort to effectively deal with this
scenario. There may even already plans
to deal with such an issue if it were to arise.
All in all, this poses a very
serious threat to the world. Russia
continues to go unchecked from really anyone.
This unmanned submarine could prove to be a very dangerous and deadly
weapon if added to the Russian arsenal.
We need to take this very seriously.
We need to come up with a plan of action and run through scenarios of
something serious happening. There may
come day when the Cold War shows it’s
ugly face again.
Zackary Ledlow
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