America You wake up like you usually do and turn on
the morning news.
It's a tense time, and while you try not to overload on bad news you're always grateful
to turn on the tv and find out that the world hasn't ended just yet.
That doesn't mean it isn't coming perilously close to.
There's tension in eastern Europe again.
Riots broke out in East Germany over renewed travel restrictions for East German citizens.
The Berlin Wall has gotten some big upgrades over the last twenty years, and is now starting
to resemble the Korean DMZ in many ways.
The 'death strip' as it's known by the west is a long stretch of barriers, machine gun
nests, and booby traps that run along the east German side of the wall.
In recent years, the entire border between east and west Germany has been militarized,
and now tank traps, mine fields, and barbed wire stretch for hundreds of yards on both
sides.
There's even rumors that the British have created nuclear mines that they've buried
somewhere under the West German soil along the border, with the goal being detonating
them in case of Soviet Bloc incursion.
But you live in America, thousands of miles away from what might become the frontline
of the third world war.
Life remains much the same as it has since the end of World War II, thanks to the protection
of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans and the might of the US Navy, which currently operates
over 500 ships and 14 carrier strike groups.
It's the largest, most powerful naval fleet in human history, and it has to be because
while enemies may be thousands of miles away, there are many of them.
What really bothers you though is the resumption of nuclear alert flights by the United States
over recent tensions in eastern europe.
The entire eastern front of Europe seems to be gripped by a fresh wave of revolutionary
spirit, with millions of eastern Europeans deeply unhappy with their lives under the
rule of regimes controlled by the Soviet Union.
In 1985 Mikahil sergeyevich Gorbachev became general secretary of the communist party of
the Soviet Union, and under his leadership the Soviet government enacted a policy of
Perestroika.
The Soviet Union had begun to greatly lag behind the economies of the west, and Gorbachev
hoped that major state reforms would help the economy grow.
He loosened the disastrously tight rein on industry that the Communist Party had kept
for decades over the entire Soviet Union, allowing for sweeping economic reforms.
Individual ministries were now capable of carrying out more independent action without
Kremlin oversight.
Gorbachev however coupled his reforms of the Soviet economy with greater freedom for the
Soviet people and those living in Soviet satellite states.
Speech became freer than it had ever been in either the Soviet Union or the Russian
empire, and Gorbachev believed that the freedom to criticize the government would allow for
greater efficiency.
Gorbachev immediately became a national hero to the average Soviet citizen, but instantly
made himself an enemy of the ruling elites.
Once given their freedom of speech, the Soviet people almost immediately used it to complain
about their lack of access to basic consumer goods, government corruption and inefficiency,
and being left behind by the wealth and prosperity of the west.
Movements demanding more than just economic reform began, and some were even calling for
political reform as well.
This proved to be too much for the old Soviet hardliners, and in 1989 a successful coup
removed Gorbachev from office.
A new general secretary was established and the army mobilized to suppress what were now
deemed insurrectionist movements across the Soviet bloc.
American President George H.W.
Bush asked the new general secretary to not use force to quell rebellions across the Soviet
bloc, but his pleas were ignored.
Soon Soviet troops were crushing rebellions in Lithuania, Ukraine, and Poland.
As the Soviets cracked down harder, more rebellions sprang up.
For a moment it seemed as if the Soviet Union and its network of satellite states might
come apart at the seams, but in the end brutal reprisals across Eastern Europe quelled revolutionary
movements.
Tens of thousands took advantage of the chaos to flee to Western Europe, some of them ending
up shot by border guards with strict orders to allow no one passage to the west.
That's when the First Line Of People's Defense was created, a massive network of fortifications,
walls, fences, and barbed wire that stretched across the entire heart of Europe.
The continent was now divided on a scale that dwarfed the Korean DMZ many times over.
According to the current General Secretary, the First Line is necessary to keep away the
corrupting influence of the west.
However, all know that in reality it's to prevent any NATO intervention in the many
ongoing rebellions and insurrections across the Soviet bloc.
The First Line however is accompanied by what six years ago was named the “Second Line
Of People's Defense”.
Much like China's great firewall, this 'line' of protection is a digital great wall that
firmly separates east from west on the internet.
With the mass adoption of the internet, the West saw a great economic boom, yet in the
East the internet allowed for the dangerous sharing of information across ideological
lines that separated capitalist west from Soviet east.
Thus the Soviet authorities worked to completely cut off western internet from reaching any
citizen of the Soviet bloc, instead allowing only eastern websites on what's essentially
the world's largest intranet.
But the launching of satellite internet has begun to breach that digital barrier between
east and west, and inevitably revolutionary zeal followed.
With yet another crackdown by the Soviets in east Germany, the situation has become
so tense that the United States has once more begun the flight of nuclear-armed B-52s on
patrol routes that bring them close to Soviet air space.
The move is a deterrent against nuclear escalation in case of war, as it will put US bombers
within just a few hours flight time of Soviet targets.
Many see it as an unnecessary provocation, but so far the concept of MAD has kept the
relative peace between east and west since the end of the second world war.
On your way to work, the news on the radio announces new anti-communist hearings by the
US congress.
You thought the days of McCArthy-ism were over, but with rising tensions in Europe the
old fear of communist infiltration has gripped the United States again.
You have to be careful, because complaining about wage inequality or the high cost of
medical care can be seen as a sign of communist sympathy.
This isn't a crime- yet- and the United States is still a free-speech nation, but if the
wrong people were to hear you talking about rising wage inequality or unaffordable health
care they might think you're secretly a Red.
That might make finding job opportunities a little harder than it normally would be,
or even getting accepted into certain colleges or universities.
As you pull up to work you can't help but notice that they've opened up a brand new
military recruiting office next door.
The US military is at the largest it's ever been, nearly 2 million strong, and it seems
as if there's been a sudden uptick in recruitment drives.
This has been mirrored by a complimentary surge in American flags- you spot one hanging
just about outside every house in your neighborhood.
For the umpteenth time in just the last week, you're grateful that you don't live in Europe.
-Europe-
It's another sunny day in Madrid, soon it'll be unbearably hot as it always is at the height
of summer, but for now you enjoy the relative cool of the early morning.
You savor it, because this is going to be one of your last three mornings as a civilian
before joining the Spanish air force.
You're a volunteer in Spain's professional, all-volunteer military.
But it sounds as if Spain may be bringing conscription back very soon- at least on a
limited scale.
While it abolished full-blown conscription in 2001, the rising tensions with the Soviet
bloc have grown concerns across Europe that the NATO alliance isn't quite ready for a
ground war against the Soviet Union and its satellite states.
For now the situation appears contained, but it's gotten increasingly worse over the years.
It's difficult to get news out of the east, but what does make it out isn't pretty.
Political unrest and even outright rebellion has increased year over year, and the advent
of VPNs and satellite internet, as well as other ways of circumventing Soviet censorship
are to blame.
Not for the first time this week you're grateful you live in Spain, though you'd rather live
somewhere a bit further from the potential site of World War III- maybe like America.
The people of eastern europe are growing increasingly restless.
Soviet economic reforms in the late 1980s only went so far before being largely withdrawn
after the coup of 1989 against General Secretary Gorbachev.
The old Soviet hardliners are back in control, and they've kept a tenuous grip on power for
the last thirty years.
But the Soviet economy is faltering and withering from a lack of open innovation and free market
ideals.
It has been for a long time, but the economic explosion that the digital revolution brought
to the west has now left the east far behind.
In response the Soviet authorities clamped down even harder, banning foreign travel and
any non-state sponsored media in the Soviet bloc.
But massive inefficiency and stagnation are taking their toll, and it seems like the situation
gets more dire year over year.
Some wishful thinkers believe the Soviets could somehow turn this all around, but the
truth is that the Soviet model of communism simply doesn't work in the modern era.
The writing is on the wall- the Soviet Union will fail, but the question is what will happen
when it does?
An animal is never more dangerous than when they are wounded and cornered.
Some Soviet bloc militaries have even been disbanded altogether, the Soviet Union no
longer believing that those militaries can be counted on to obey Kremlin commands.
Lithuania and Estonia for instance have had their military forces disbanded, and now former
officers and soldiers are eyed warily as potential insurrectionists.
The Soviet Union has instead moved its own forces into the territories, further tightening
its iron grip around the two republics.
But the heavy-handed tactics are backfiring as resentment grows over Soviet rule.
You've been preparing for military service for months now, and your dream is to fly one
of the new American-made F-35s.
You hope you'll be selected for the special training program at the American base at Torrejon.
This along with Moron and Zaragoza are three of the US Air Force's most important overseas
bases, as they are a vital link back to airfields in the US for aircraft transiting to the European
theater of operations.
Additional American bases have recently undergone construction in the UK, Spain, and even Turkey.
It seems most NATO members are eager to have US forces present on their soil these days.
Less exciting is the presence of hundreds of American nuclear weapons across the NATO
alliance.
These are meant to be used by both American and host-nation pilots in case of war.
You marvel at how the Soviet Union has managed to hold it all together so far.
Not only are they under attack from within, but from without too as waves of extremist
terrorism rock the southern territories.
There have even been attacks inside of Moscow itself.
This is all thanks to the Soviet Union's ongoing occupation of Afghanistan, which it took in
the 80s and has held since.
There was hope that the United States could help arm and fund the Mujahideen fighting
the Soviet occupation, but in exchange for support with their nuclear weapons program
and an agreement to come to the defense of the nation should it be invaded by India,
Pakistan turned away from the United States and refused to cooperate in the effort to
arm the rebels.
It's been thirty years now and the war seems to drag on forever, with the Soviets losing
a steady trickle of men every year.
Most of the fighting is over and the US has had a difficult time arming any opposition
groups, but an insurgency is ongoing as Islamic extremists vow unending Jihad against the
Soviet occupiers and their godless regime.
Yet the Soviet Union won't pull out of the nation, fearing it would quickly become an
American ally which would give the US yet another toehold in the all-important Middle
East.
You can't imagine what it must be like to wage a war against terrorists for decades,
nor how much money the Soviets must have wasted in the effort.
For that, you're thankful, but what truly worries you is the understanding that the
Soviet Union simply can't continue much longer.
Economic stagnation, out competition by the west, political and social unrest- sooner
or later the Soviet Union is going to implode.
But what happens next, both in Europe and the world, is what scares you the most.
After almost a century of ideological opposition, you doubt the nuclear armed Soviet Union is
simply going to quietly disintegrate and grant freedom to the many republics and client states
demanding it.
Now go watch What If Russian Fighter Jets Enter NATO Airspace?
Or click this other video instead!