Sci-Fi is showing the nuclear disaster movie The Day After right now. I’ll never forget watching this when it first aired in 1983. I was 12 years old and it scared the living piss out of me. It still does — but it’s more poignant now that I understand the politics behind the narrative. The quid pro quo beginning with tensions in Berlin; then we attack the Soviet troops with an air burst; then they nuke one of our ships in the Persian Gulf in retaliation; and so on and so on.
Chris Matthews recently said something rather chilling and it’s been running through my head while watching this movie. He said he was glad that Dick Cheney wasn’t in charge during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
