Shall we play a game?
Let’s play global thermonuclear war.
Is this a game or is it real?
What’s the difference?
Those WikiQuotes are from the 1983 movie “War Games“.
WarGames is a 1983 American Cold War science fiction film written by Lawrence Lasker and Walter F. Parkes and directed by John Badham. The film stars Matthew Broderick, Dabney Coleman, John Wood, and Ally Sheedy. The film follows David Lightman (Broderick), a young hacker who unwittingly accesses WOPR (War Operation Plan Response), a United States military supercomputer originally programmed to predict possible outcomes of nuclear war. Lightman gets WOPR to run a nuclear war simulation, originally believing it to be a computer game. The computer, now tied into the nuclear weapons control system and unable to tell the difference between simulation and reality, attempts to start World War III.
Here is the ending scene:
‘Fire and Fury’ not Tough Enough
Back in the real world … I think …
Donald Trump says ‘fire and fury’ comment ‘wasn’t tough enough’.
President Donald Trump said Thursday that his previous promise of “fire and fury” in response to threats from North Korea may have not gone far enough, vowing “trouble” for the country if its actions don’t change.
“If anything, maybe that statement [about “fire and fury”] wasn’t tough enough,” Trump told reporters from the steps of his golf resort in Bedminster, N.J. He added, “We’re backed 100 percent by our military.”
Asked if he were daring the North Koreans, Trump said: “It’s not a dare, it’s a statement. Has nothing to do with dare…it’s a statement of fact.”
Should the president decide to act preemptively in the region, NBC News learned Wednesday that the Pentagon has prepared a specific plan for such an attack — one that relies heavily on the use of B-1B bombers.
China to Protect North Korea if US Attacks First
Reuters reports Chinese Paper Says China Should Stay Neutral if North Korea Attacks First.
If North Korea launches an attack that threatens the United States then China should stay neutral, but if the United States attacks first and tries to overthrow North Korea’s government China will stop them, a Chinese state-run newspaper said on Friday.
The widely read state-run Global Times, published by the ruling Communist Party’s official People’s Daily, wrote in an editorial that Beijing is not able to persuade either Washington or Pyongyang to back down.
“China should also make clear that if North Korea launches missiles that threaten U.S. soil first and the U.S. retaliates, China will stay neutral,” it added.
“If the U.S. and South Korea carry out strikes and try to overthrow the North Korean regime and change the political pattern of the Korean Peninsula, China will prevent them from doing so.”
Is this a game or is it real?
In case you did not know, this is the real world, not a game. And unlike the famous scene in “War Games,” it does matter.
Mike “Mish” Shedlock
