[speaker001:] so it's kind of an obsolete question at this point since there isn't a Soviet Union anymore but
[speaker002:] right I mean yeah first of all I think that we have to agree that former Soviet Union
[speaker001:] for former right right we we can say the the the the soon to be former uh Commonwealth of Independent States instead is that
[speaker002:] that that's true too on that one well I I I personally still view them to be a threat as long as they've got nuclear weapons and or other weapons that can hit us
[speaker001:] and I I don't consider them so much to be a threat anymore in terms of them using it is that we're already starting to see demonstrated that in a very cash starved country you know those things equal a commodity that can be sold to people who I I worry a lot more about than the Soviet Union
[speaker002:] that that that's very true I I would agree with that also or
[speaker001:] you know I mean we already had the case where they had those uh guys selling uranium trying to sell uranium on the open market
[speaker002:] that that part is very true there's also the uh the problem of you know the scientist that will you know need money also and and they can be very rich by
[speaker001:] yeah and and in fact I I've been hearing suggestions we set a fund up to get them into alternative areas of research at some reasonable amount of pay so they don't go to Libya or somewhere like that
[speaker002:] sure so I mean yeah so I I I think there's still a lot of threats there I'm not sure if you can once again like you said it's kind of obsolete is it the Soviet Union that's threatening us though
[speaker001:] right I I think actually you know the the except for the fact that we happen to be due west of them and we got a fallout cloud I don't think the the the probability that we're gonna be involved in the first strike or anything is fairly is fairly high but you know there's certainly a lot of people arguing there right now who all have nuclear weapons and there is also the concern that some of the sovereign uh republics who are a lot of them Islamic some of them have nuclear weapons based in them and if they break off and for instance decide to align with Iran or Iraq then suddenly we're in a very difficult position
[speaker002:] sure another another problem that would worry me somewhat uh would be that say they were using nuclear weapons on themselves you know in another area
[speaker001:] um
[speaker002:] since since there are is some you know disagreements between the different Commonwealths
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] uh you know some very different etiologies in there also it if they were to use them there what would all of our audit detection and what not type systems I mean what what's the chance for an accident in that case also on top of the fallout factor
[speaker001:] right and and the of course the other thing is you've got them all arguing over their nuclear subs and all of that so there's the whole question whether one of the uh sub drivers is gonna decide to become free lance oh I don't wanna I don't wanna go with Russia so I'm going to uh you know sell myself to the highest bidder or something
[speaker002:] right absolutely so yeah that that that whole thing is a very scary thing destabulation destabilization destabilization
[speaker001:] right
[speaker002:] and let it let it choke on that one uh the uh you know the Soviet Union has been a uh a big concern it's a scary thing
[speaker001:] right you know the other the other possible scenario of course is that in in it's it's gonna be hard for the entire area to have them but for instance you can see in Russia especially now there's a lot of hard liners coming back because the the economic reforms aren't working we could find ourselves right back in the same position again
[speaker002:] sure
[speaker001:] the only thing I think what we have got going for us is we have a very large stick in the form of economic aid and technological aid and a lot of the Republic seem to be more interested in getting the aid in than having the nuclear weapons
[speaker002:] that that that's very true um you know granted that you know The Cold War was a very scary thing but at least it was a non commodity
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] you know we we knew what we we're you know we knew what we were up against
[speaker001:] yeah but I I have to say I think all overall overall things are in instead of the unstability in the area are actually stable more stable than they were before because I think inherently our the the chance that we're gonna be involved in it in anything is fairly low I think none of them are foolish enough to wanna attack the United States
[speaker002:] well especially now that they're divided they're not bigger than we are anymore
[speaker001:] yeah I mean all of them are looking to us from help not for uh not looking to us for you know uh invasion at this point
[speaker002:] yeah I I think it is very true uh you know we're once again even the even the ones that aren't necessarily looking for help from us you know they getting massive amounts of help or or wanting that from Germany and from other from other third world countries so that would that would probably also keep you know blatant uh uh you know acts of war out of the uh picture
[speaker001:] um-hum so you know I I think it it's more gonna be I don't think we're looking at uh potential for anything large scale um you know I think there's certainly some people in in the US government who would like us to think that they're still a threat um you know I was listening to MPR yesterday talk about the Sea Hawk submarine and you know I'm saying you know wait a minute here why do we wanna build like two or three multibillion dollar submarines you know and the reason is to keep Gratin Connecticut at all alive but yeah I I think that there's there are people in government who perceive who would whose job it is to make sure that we still perceive a threat where there may not be one anymore
[speaker002:] sure