The New York Times | Truth Stranger Than 'Strangelove'

"Toward the end of the film, officials uncover General Ripper's code and call back the B-52's, but they notice that one bomber keeps flying toward its target. A B-52 is about to attack the Russians with a few H-bombs; General Turgidson recommends that we should 'catch 'em with their pants down,'' and launch an all-out, disarming first-strike.

Such a strike would destroy 90 percent of the U.S.S.R.'s nuclear arsenal. 'Mr. President,' he exclaims, 'I'm not saying we wouldn't get our hair mussed, but I do say no more than 10-20 million killed, tops!' If we don't go all-out, the general warns, the Soviets will fire back with all their nuclear weapons. The choice, he screams, is 'between two admittedly regrettable but nevertheless distinguishable postwar environments - one where you get 20 million people killed and the other where you get 150 million people killed!' Mr. Kahn made precisely this point in his book, even producing a chart labeled, 'Tragic but Distinguishable Postwar States.'"

Classic movie, classic actors, lots of fun. That's the good part.

The bad part is that the folks in Strangelove seem very similar to today's Bubba Bush administration. From neocon Christian fundamentalists to clueless leaders, the Bush administration has it all for comedy but nothing for reliability.

And with everyone pushing around nuclear these days, including Iran and North Korea, and most of the US military busy being shot at in Iraq, the nuclear strategy is much more complicated than in was in the cold war days. What we need is some sanity in the US administration. We need you, Colonel Bat Guano!