Handmaidens of the Apocalypse

Prior to reading Nuclear War A Scenario by Annie Jacobsen, I didn't truly understand the significance and dangers that nuclear submarines really had such apocalyptic, nuclear suicidal power.

Beneath the calm, oceans move the Handmaidens of the Apocalypse. These submarines cradle within their steel hearts the quiet possibility of our extinction. These Quiet ocean killers glide unseen, anonymous, held together by discipline and chain of command. Nations speak of them as instruments of peace, embodiments of deterrence, yet their true purpose is far more ancient, to remind humanity that power always carries the seed of its own destruction.

We have built our heart of darkness out of metal and nuclear destruction, and called this vigilance and deterrence. But beneath that vigilance lies a dark truth that our civilization’s peace is sustained not by wisdom or compassion, but by the threat of instant, planetary nuclear suicide. The ocean hides our denial, and we try to conceal our suicidal preemptive first strike nuclear madness.

Just the thought and possibility of nuclear-powered submarines stationed off of the coast of United States in the Pacific and the Atlantic Oceans, and their ability to fire off nuclear missiles with multiple nuclear warheads on each missile. And, the ability to target and hit all 50 states multiple times in less than 20 minutes is absolutely evil and genocidal.