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Chapter 4 - The Incompetence of the King?
"Steve had brought a newspaper to the park where we met. We met at his favorite bench in the middle of a wide-open lawn. He pretended to discuss the newspaper with me.
"Peter, Peter, why did you travel half way around the world just for that?" he greeted me while he looked at me across the top of his glasses and smiled. "Did you come across the Atlantic and across the iron curtain to hear me telling you what you already know?"
He reached his hand out. "It is so nice to see you again," he added. "Still, you could have saved yourself the trouble."
"I'm not here on my own behalf, Steve. The President of the United States of America is in a terrible bind. He is petrified with fear over the financial crisis. My boss wants to have your assessment as to what kind of danger we are in as the result of the financial breakdown in the West. He assumes that you have access to people who know how this development is perceived in the Soviet Union."
Steve broke into laughter and immediately put the paper down so as not to give the impression there was anything that funny in the paper.
"My boss thinks that your network of friends in the scientific world includes connections to high places. Such a connection would be invaluable in this case. That is why I have come. Now, with this said, you can tell me what I already know."
Steve began to laugh again. "Are you sure you are not trained as a comedian rather than as a diplomat?"
"Don't make jokes about this, Steve. That's serious!" I interrupted his laughter. I held my hand out until he stopped. "The President is afraid that the Soviets will exploit the weakness in the West that exploded unto the surface. He is afraid of a nuclear strike. In fact, he is so terribly afraid that he wants to preempt it! The first strike option is on the table, Steve. I am not joking. His advisors are pushing. They want him to preempt a possible Soviet first strike that they fear may be the Soviets' response to our weakness."
Steve shook his head and laughed again. He folded his paper up and laid on the bench beside him.
"If this wasn't so serious, it really would be funny," I said cautiously in a tone of agreement.
"The man is insane and incompetent," said Steve in reply. "There is an economic crisis unfolding, and he wants to turn it into a strategic one too. He wants to throw nuclear weapons around. That is no way to solve an economic crisis."
"I know this, Steve, but how do the Soviets see this thing?"
"They are insane too, but not quite as insane. Remember that the West pushed them into this nuclear-war standoff in the first place."
"I know this, Steve. But that doesn't answer how Soviets are viewing our economic crisis, Steve? The delicate balance of power has suddenly shifted. Will the Soviets exploit it? Or are they afraid too, wondering if we are crazy enough to do something stupid to cover up our inability to deal with the crisis? That's the standard response in the imperial world when things fall apart internally, isn't it? If the imperial's credibility is on the rocks at home, they make war abroad. That's standard imperial practice. That's what usually happens, and that's what should be expected in this case as an American response. Surely, that's what the Russians should be afraid of ever since America became an Empire."
Steve just smile like a father might smile that has to explain to child for the nth time what is up and what is down. "Sure there is a little crisis in the making. I hear a few rumbles in the markets, but that's all, Pete. The situation is not yet acute and won't be for some time. We live in the modern world, Pete. We don't live in the dark ages. The USA is still the greatest economic and military power on the planet. Everybody knows that. It's not an empire yet and will never be one, though many would desire it. The Soviets know this. They are not stupid. The big question is, do you know it? And the bigger question is, do you know what lies in the future if our insane and incompetent President continues to destroy everything that has been built, that we once represented?"
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