NUWAUBIAN FROM NORTH CAROLINA LIVING IN EAST CLEVELAND OHIO IS UNDER SIEGE (PASS IT ON)...PART 2

And thanks to black people who snitch out their own, children are becoming a casualty in a war for food. U.S. police kill black people at disproportionate rates: Black people accounted for 31 percent of police killing victims in 2012, even though they made up just 13 percent of the US population. Although the data is incomplete because it’s based on voluntary reports from police agencies around the country, it highlights the vast disparities in how police use force. The disparities appear to be even starker for unarmed suspects, according to an analysis of 2015 police killings, racial minorities made up about 37.4 percent of the general population in the US and 46.6 percent of armed and unarmed victims, but they made up 62.7 percent of unarmed people killed by police. And finally, the body count increases the likely hood of civil war especially when we speak of fatalities due to mass shootings. The problem, however, is there is no standard definition of what constitutes a mass shooting. Media outlets, academic researchers, and law enforcement agencies frequently use different definitions when discussing mass shootings, leading to different assessments of how frequently mass shootings occur and whether they are more common now than they were a decade or two ago. Some claim that a shooting involving as little as 4 or 5 victims makes up a mass shooting. Now put this into perspective as a civil conflict only requires 25 deaths a year to be at a crisis level: we are definitely pushing ourselves towards a civil war. Many chalk up the hyperbolic talk of civil war to the country’s hyperpartisan atmosphere and a cable news arms race in which commentators feel compelled to ramp up the rhetoric to be heard when everyone, including the president and Congress, seems to be shouting all the time. The talk has drawn particular derision from some military-veteran groups, whose members have experienced actual warfare. But the rhetoric also has origins in some real-world problems, such as a crumbling of confidence in the country’s democratic institutions and its paralyzed federal government. With Congress largely deadlocked, governance on the most controversial issues has been left to the Supreme Court or has come through executive or emergency actions from President Trump.

All the doom, gloom, and divisiveness in the United States has caught the attention of experts who evaluate the strength of governments around the world. The Economist Intelligence Unit’s Democracy Index, a measure widely cited by political scientists, demoted the United States from “full democracy” to “flawed democracy” in January 2017, citing a big drop in Americans’ trust in their political institutions. According to Newsweek magazine’s polling, a third of all Americans think that a civil war could break out within the next five years, with 10% thinking it “very likely to happen.” The predominantly left-leaning US media has just entered its third consecutive year of open warfare against Donald Trump. This non-stop assault risks aggravating political passions to the point where ‘Trump Derangement Syndrome’ snowballs into something completely beyond our ability to control—like full-blown Civil War. In the past, many left-leaning newspapers and television networks have taken on the charge of being part of the resistance and have gone out of their way to ignore the problem of extremist left-leaning views. Groups like Proud Boys and Patriot Prayer are called extreme white supremacist operations while Antifa are considered counter protesters whose manical supermen are out to bring justice through intimidation and violence. Violent and extreme ideologies bring ratings to the networks by way of guerilla and pack journalism where commentators peak from political boas instead of objectivity. The media stands accused of painting a picture of a very dark America that needs to revolt and carry out whatever means necessary to secure a left vote or administration. We have seen violent protests which have been ignored liberal media outlets and have been spotlighted by conservative groups as threat to our national security.

This imbalance is actually affecting Americans that feel that their way of life is being threatened. The continued onslaught of this activity will not stand with most Americans and backlash is inevitable. By definition, any extreme right or left wing group that uses violence for a political goal are considered domestic terrorists. As attacks domestically increase so does the body count and the outright insurrection of liberal leaders against conservative ones deepen the divide and eventually, there may be an all-out assault in many communities across the United States. As many knowledgeable Americans will openly admit, battle lines have been drawn across the political and cultural frontier. This division is perhaps most conspicuous on social media, where friends and family who disagree with your political worldview get the ‘nuke option’ and are effortlessly unfriended with the push of a button. This is a worrying development. The real danger will come when Americans from both sides of the political divide stop talking and start erecting extremely dangerous barriers around their political belief systems. When organized armed assaults become more common and it is evident that the assailants are doing so to make America great again or because those who wish to truly make America great are gunned down because someone deems them fascist- we will know that America is about to have a curtain call. Not even family members are spared from the turmoil; just because people share the same bloodline does not automatically mean they share the same political views. It can be said that what has triggered the current civil conflict was the hypocritical guarantee in 2016 that there would be a peaceful and smooth transition of power when President Trump took office.

This never happened and this is why the civil combatant operations are now being fed and the monster that will come from it may cause American Omnicide. If the word Omnicide sounds ominous, it is because it is. Loosely defined, Omnicide is the total extinction of a civilization through a major catastrophe brought on by war or ecological disaster. No President, pundit or religious authority can prevent a stroke of extinction and the idea of finger pointing and blame is hollow as we are responsible for our own demise. Donald Trump is certainly not above criticism. Far from it. But for the mainstream media to place all of the blame for the current political malaise at the Republican’s door is about as responsible as lighting up a cigarette in a fireworks factory. If the mainstream media continues to slavishly serve just one political master over another, it will only have itself to blame for what comes next. Its prejudiced and agenda-based reporting is a disgrace and really nothing short of a bona fide national security threat. The America we loved is lost, perhaps forever. That is the meaning of this conflict. The republic that bound its rulers with the chains of the Constitution and freed the rest of us to live in peace is no more. The Constitution along with our Declaration of Independence was a guarantee etched in stone of the freedoms and sovereignty need to establish a strong republic. The Constitution now is cherry-picked in order to justify extremist speech, a corrupt press, and to justify other acts of malfeasance that bend or even break the rules regarding civil liberty. Are we able to pause and reflect seriously on the dire consequences of our collective behavior – or passivity when it comes to an American’s right to life liberty and the pursuit of happiness?

At some point, for whatever reason, you have to come to the realization that the consensus narratives in our society about what’s going on are false. The tools that people are taught to use to inform themselves about their government, their nation, and their world are not just full of inaccuracies, but deliberate distortions, ranging from the reasons that were given for why wars are started, to the way our political systems work, to where real power and authority actually lies, to the way nations and governments actually behave in the world. This awareness has come with a degree of alienation. Not buying into the same consensus narratives about the world as your friends, loved ones and peers comes with an inability to relate to them on some levels, which can cause you to feel a lack of intimacy in those areas. You may have also found yourself the odd one out in conversations about politics or other controversial issues, maybe even lost old friends over it. Many of you who take the time to listen to alternative views are shunned. Many of us are told to pick a side and the sides we are told to choose are extremist. Centrism is now a major sin politically and when one states that this is their affiliation they are told that they have no place in this war of ideologies. What is most disconcerting is that people don’t use the strength of their numbers to force an end to the oppressive, homicidal status quo, because they aren’t interested in doing so. Many have not felt enough pain to do something about it. They see suffering as an inevitability or they see it as the new normal. All of mankind’s biggest dilemmas are ultimately due to the fact that propaganda is far more ubiquitous and far more advanced than most people realize. Social media is effective in shaping views and now those who control it have become aware of the power and now wish to take control of all information and now they even want to be your banker.

Nobody teaches you in school that throughout your entire life that behind the scenes an organized plutocracy will be working to control the thoughts in your head using a highly sophisticated arsenal of psychological operations funneled into your mind via their near-total control of the media. Nobody warns you as a kid that if you ever really want to grow up, you’ll first have to extricate the vast network of lies which have been deliberately sewn into your consciousness since birth. This is why Americans do not value their freedoms enough to fight for them. Younger generations have now been manipulated on a mass scale by the same people who have been granted immense power and wealth by the existence of that status quo. However, the responsibility of the older generations has not been greater. It is our responsibility to share information which counters the disinformation, doing our best to throw sand in the gears of the propaganda machine and show people the little gaps in the code of the matrix in the hope that some light sleeper might spot it and begin waking up from the dream. You should never concede to knowing everything – you should be teachable and impart your wisdom whenever possible. It is imperative to keep learning and gaining a better and better understanding of how the oppression machine operates so that you can describe it more lucidly to others. This is the real tool to end the fomenting war – solid and objective information. Never let anyone shame you into silence or make you believe that your efforts are in vain. Never doubt that you’re on the right path. Your edge is your agility and your access to inspiration. No amount of social engineering can kill the truth – as they say, solid ideas can withstand bullets and bombs.

Freemasonry's best kept secret is ritual sodomy. Sodomy is a form of brainwashing. Freemasons are able to be a closeted homos*xual organization due to the amnesia of half the victims, and psychological denial of their own homos*xuality by bull fruit perps. Freemasons believe sodomy opens the "third eye" to Luciferian illumination. It attacks a pressure point of nerves at the base of the spine, causing temporary neurological paralysis and a shift of consciousness. Now consider that public schools and mass media are indoctrinating children to believe homos*xuality is normal. There are thousands of "gay-straight alliance" clubs in elementary and high schools throughout the West where children have an opportunity to meet and experiment with homos*xuality. Society is being inducted into a satanic cult and it doesn't have a clue. The best kept secret of the esoteric grades of Freemasonry is ritual sodomy. They believe it opens the "third eye" to Luciferian illumination. It attacks a pressure point of nerves at the base of the spine, causing temporary neurological paralysis and a shift of consciousness. MK-ULTRA survivors have testified that sodomy causes identity "splits" in children up to age 5, so it was standard for programming multiples. In order to produce a mind control slave, it must be done ideally between age two and four. The pressure point causes memory blackout, which is why victims don't experience flashbacks before a physiological change in the brain occurs between age 28 and 32. When introduced at eleven or older it doesn't cause splits, but initiates the victim or 'neophyte' into the Sado-Masochistic "brotherhood". The initiation is metaphysical so it doesn't matter whether it is done formally as an initiation, or informally. The Illuminati are a class of people that have this "illumination" in common whether the perp was a Freemason or not. Anyone that has experienced sodomy has been illuminated or initiated into the Luciferian initiation because "Lucifer" is real.

"No one will enter the New World Order unless he or she will make a pledge to worship Lucifer. No one will enter the New Age unless he will take a Luciferian Initiation." - David Spangler (Leading figure in the '70's and 80's New Age movement and United Nations affiliated NGO's: Findhorn Foundation, Lindisfarne Association.)This is why sodomy laws have been overturned almost world wide since 1970. By 1996, Satanist rocker Marylin Manson was literally selling sodomy to teens, and laughing all the way to the bank. See the lyrics for Manson's 1996 rock anthem, "Cake And Sodomy", which middle school teens bought at shopping malls with their parent's money:

bible-belt 'round anglo-waste, putting sinners in their place
yeah, right, great if you're so good explain the **** stains on your face
white trash get down on your knees, time for cake and sodomy
time for cake and sodomy


Freemasons have gotten away with being a closeted homos*xual organization all along due to amnesia of half the victims, and psychological denial of their own homos*xuality by the Bull Fruit perps. It's a Jekyll and Hyde thing. That's why so many politicians caught having public bathroom oral/anal s*x, such as Indiana state rep Paul Hinkle and US Senator Larry Craig, say "but I'm not gay". It's tricky to explain to people that millions of Illuminati agents act completely autonomously. I don't think there is an organization with an address and meetings and such by that name. Illuminati are the people Satan's got under demonic obsession. It doesn't require what we're used to thinking of as secret groups with meetings and so on. What explains it is that there is a supernatural non-human counter-force behind the scenes. Satan and 'Legion' are real. That is not to say that there isn't a network of conscious Satanists who occupy the positions of power in most organizations. Thus 'the Illuminati' control all organizations with plausible deniability. They get suspected, but never get convicted because they sit on the bench. The network extends to police, courts, media...so nothing happens, as was the case twice when avowed Satanist Lieut. Col. Michael Aquino, was caught: Once in the Franklin Omaha procurer for Capitol Hill pedophiles scandal, and again in the Presidio pedophile ring case. https://www.thelastamericanvagabond.com/ou...

In Conclusion: Killing Doqn a Population Because of their Bllod type: On the second day of the impeachment hearings, Schiff said the United States aids “Ukraine and her people so that we can fight Russia over there and we don’t have to fight Russia here.” Now there was much debate over what he meant when he said those words. This was something that the mainstream news avoided because Schiff was either suggesting that we are secretly at war with Russia or that stopping military aid to Ukraine could have ultimately resulted in Russian military action against the United States “here” in the homeland. This argument that Schiff made in his opening statement was consistent with numerous statements he has made over the course of the proceedings arguing that Trump must be removed because he has threatened U.S. national security. Whichever the interpretation you want to make, Schiff’s statement may have been an intelligence gaffe that the media has decided to ignore. The reason is quite simple – the statement Schiff made could have also jeopardized national security. Schiff’s statement was left to dangle without any explanation and yet with further research one will walk away with the impression that there is a war on the horizon but it will not be fought in Ukraine. Our history with Russia has always been immersed in mistrust and one would think that after communism fell, we would change our attitude about Russia. History tells us that between World War II and the fall of the Berlin Wall, communication between the Western powers and the Soviet Union was shackled by the deep rivalry and distrust of the Cold War. The US and the USSR had nukes aimed at each other and spies trying to find out what was actually going on over on the other side. When the Soviet Union collapsed, many of the secrets it kept remained secret because even their own citizens were not privy to the details.

This led to many Cold War conspiracy theories where the Soviets and the United States were always on the brink of mutually assured destruction. But the biggest Cold War mystery of all is why we were allied with Russia to beat the Nazis in World War II, only to invite Nazis into our intelligence agencies through Project Paperclip and become allies with them in order to fight Russia? Hitler’s spymaster and Project PAPERCLIP asset, Reinhard Gehlen, may well have been the father of the Deep State, developing the “Org” which consisted of hardcore Nazi spooks surrendering to the allies and then giving them information that would be the seeds of paranoia needed to create the Cold War. The Deep State’s philosophy continues to push these age-old ideologies about the Cold War. Just before his inauguration President Trump even compared the Intelligence community’s handling of this dossier to tactics used in Nazi Germany. Outgoing director of the Central Intelligence Agency, John Brennan, took great offense at this comparison, saying it was outrageous to equate the Intelligence community with Nazi Germany. Despite Brennan’s outrage, large numbers of actual Nazi spies and informants were working for the intelligence community when he joined the CIA in 1980. Many of them trained by ex-nazi spies that were brought over to the United States after World War II through Project Paperclip. Even though President Franklin Roosevelt insisted on the unconditional surrender of the Nazis, future CIA director Allen Dulles negotiated an agreement with Nazi General Karl Wolff to protect Nazi spies so they could be used against the Soviet Union after the war. Many of these Nazi spies stayed in Europe to work for the Gladio network, controlled by NATO.

Of the 30,000 Nazis who escaped Europe through these ratlines, the U.S. government hired at least 1,000 as spies and informants. At the height of the Cold War, CIA director Dulles and Federal Bureau of Investigation director J. Edgar Hoover aggressively recruited former Nazis of all ranks as assets against the Soviets. While evidence of the government’s links to former Nazi spies began to emerge in the 1970s, the U.S. Intelligence Community continued to use former Nazis until 1990. The remnants of the Nazi intelligence Org and Gladio Operatives left behind in Europe have all but secured the idea that mini operative wars have been fought all over the globe. Much of what can be called European terrorism has been allegedly carried out by Gladio operatives. Many of these operatives are responsible for the uprisings in France, mass shootings in both France and Norway, European government dysfunction and many riots seen all over Europe. Well trained Deep State spies in Europe and the United States have gathered intelligence which in their eyes justifies a new Cold War with Russia. The stage is being set for an all-out war with Russia over natural resources. There have been indicators that Russia is already setting up a massive military garrison to provide protection of vital resources that they wish to keep for themselves and their allies. The exploitation of Arctic oil and gas resources and their transport to markets in Europe and Asia has become a major economic priority for Moscow as its hydrocarbon reserves below the Arctic Circle begin to dry up. Despite calls at home for greater economic diversity, President Vladimir Putin’s regime continues to insist on the centrality of hydrocarbon production to the country’s economic future. In that context, production in the Arctic has become an essential national objective, which, in turn, requires assured access to the Atlantic Ocean via the Barents Sea and Norway’s offshore waters.

When I hear of the Barents Sea, I am reminded of a story we covered last year about how a fire broke out on a Russian nuclear submarine in the Barents Sea called the Losharik where 14 sailors were killed. The sub was one of the Russian Navy’s smallest submersible nuclear-powered vessels and was supposedly engaged in “marine research” on the ocean floor in its home country’s territorial waters when the deadly fire broke out, although this type of sub is widely thought to be engaged in espionage activities. According to an Israeli news organization, Russian President Vladimir Putin canceled an engagement and headed for the Kremlin to confer with Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and military chiefs, after learning that the 14 submariners died in a fire that broke out on a nuclear-powered “experimental submarine in Russian waters.” One premise is that the Losharik was engaged either in testing a new Russian secret underwater weapon or in a covert operation against a top-secret American object of some kind. Its exact location when the fire broke out and its cause, whether an explosion or an attack, was not clear. The Russians eventually claimed that the fire broke out in the Barents Sea. On Tuesday, July 2, 2019, when the Russian leadership met urgently in the Kremlin in connection with the submarine disaster, top officials were also called to the White House for an emergency consultation. The families of the 14 Russian servicemen who died in the fire onboard the sub were told that their relatives averted a “planetary catastrophe” before they passed away. No one from Russia or the Russian media explained just what that planetary catastrophe was.

What planetary disaster did they avert if both Norway and Russia will not officially declare that a nuclear leak may have happened or that a nuclear reactor was damaged on board and what caused the damage? The head of Greenpeace in Norway, Frode Pleym, urged authorities in Moscow to be fully transparent in order to “safeguard the interests both of Russia and neighboring countries like Norway.” Putin came under fire for his slow response in the rescue operation. The truth is that there was a nuclear reactor onboard but the Kremlin said that the accident was sparked by a fire in the battery compartment of the submarine. The Kremlin has not revealed what exactly occurred, or whether a major incident was averted by the servicemen’s actions. Paying tribute to the crew at the memorial, the unnamed military official said the submariners had prevented a much bigger tragedy, Russian news outlet Open Media reported. “Today we are seeing off the crew of a research deep water apparatus, who died while performing a combat mission in the cold waters of the Barents Sea. Fourteen dead, 14 lives,” he is quoted as saying. “At the cost of their lives, they saved the lives of their comrades, saved the ship, did not allow a planetary catastrophe.” Perhaps the planetary catastrophe was an all-out nuclear war with the United States? Back then the idea of a possible nuclear exchange with Russia would be considered a bit over the top – but then what Adam Schiff said at the impeachment hearings now resonates because of what we knew last year—and what much of the media now will not report about the darkness that is looming at the top of the world.

In early March, an estimated 7,500 American combat troops will travel to Norway to join thousands of soldiers from other NATO countries in a massive mock battle with imagined invading forces from Russia. In this futuristic simulated engagement, it goes by the name of Exercise Cold Response 2020 as allied forces will “conduct multinational joint exercises with a high-intensity combat scenario in demanding winter conditions, “or so claims the Norwegian military anyway. At first glance, this may look like any other NATO training exercise but there’s nothing ordinary about Cold Response 2020. This information was leaked to Alternet author Michael T. Klare and is a major source for what is now brewing in the Arctic is Exercise Cold Response – an exercise that is in preparation for an all-out resource war? Has the war actually had a few false starts? This exercise is certainly in a place where we wouldn’t even dream of looking. First, it’s being staged above the Arctic Circle, far from any previous traditional NATO battlefield, and it raises to a new level the possibility of a great-power conflict that might end in a nuclear exchange and mutual annihilation. The North Pole just maybe World War III’s newest battlefield. For the soldiers participating in the exercise, the potentially thermonuclear dimensions of Cold Response 2020 may not be obvious. At its start, Marines from the United States and the United Kingdom will practice massive amphibious landings along Norway’s coastline, much as they do in similar exercises elsewhere in the world.

Once ashore, however, the scenario becomes even more distinctive. After collecting tanks and other heavy weaponry “prepositioned “in caves in Norway’s interior, the Marines will proceed toward the country’s far-northern Finnmark region to help Norwegian forces stave off Russian forces supposedly pouring across the border. From then on, the two sides will engage in—to use current Pentagon terminology—high-intensity combat operations under Arctic conditions a type of warfare not seen on such a scale since World War II. Unbeknownst to most Americans, the Finnmark region of Norway and adjacent Russian territory have become one of the most likely battlegrounds for the first use of nuclear weapons in any future NATO-Russian conflict. Because Moscow has concentrated a significant part of its nuclear retaliatory capability on the Kola Peninsula, a remote stretch of land abutting northern Norway—any U.S.-NATO success in actual combat with Russian forces near that territory would endanger a significant part of Russia’s nuclear arsenal and so might precipitate the early use of such munitions. Even a simulated victory—the predictable result of Cold Response 2020 will undoubtedly set Russia’s nuclear controllers on edge. To appreciate just how risky any NATO-Russian clash in Norway’s far north would be, consider the region’s geography and the strategic factors that have led Russia to concentrate so much military power there. Russia has been involved heavily in setting up a military garrison in the north and also participating in a massive geoengineering campaign to heat up the areas of the north. Since 2013, Russia has been pleading with the IPCC to allow for the use of geoenegineering economic reasons. Russia has been working with China and Russia to take advantage of summer Ice melts in order to use Icebreakers to go in and create a passage that would allow for year-round navigation in the area in 2020.

Russia and China are developing shipping lanes by taking advantage of the ice thaw and encouraging enterprises to build infrastructure in the Arctic. This poses an economic threat to the United States as Russia and China get to benefit from North Pole booty while the United States is left out. Remember when President Trump wanted to buy Greenland and the media excoriated him for it? Now you can see why he was interested in a strategic area to fight a future war. Once prized as a source of vital minerals, especially nickel, iron ore, and phosphates, this remote area is now the center of extensive oil and natural gas extraction. As Russia and China experiment with weather control pushing temperatures higher the sea ice retreating ever farther north every year, offshore fossil-fuel exploration has become increasingly viable. As a result, large reserves of oil and natural gas the very fuels the IPCC says are responsible for those rising temperatures have been discovered beneath the Barents Sea and both countries are seeking to exploit those deposits. Norway has taken the lead, establishing at Hammerfest in Finnmark the world’s first plant above the Arctic Circle to export liquified natural gas. In a similar fashion, Russia has initiated efforts to exploit the mammoth Shtokman gas field in its sector of the Barents Sea, though it has yet to bring such plans to fruition. No less than Russia’s giant energy firms, its navy must be able to enter the Atlantic via the Barents Sea and northern Norway. Aside from its Baltic and Black Sea ports, accessible to the Atlantic only via passageways easily obstructed by NATO, the sole Russian harbor with unfettered access to the Atlantic Ocean is at Murmansk on the Kola Peninsula.

Not surprisingly then, that port is also the headquarters for Russia’s Northern Fleet—its most powerful—and the site of numerous air, infantry, missile, and radar bases along with naval shipyards and nuclear reactors. In other words, it’s among the most sensitive military regions in Russia today. Given all this, President Putin has substantially rebuilt that very fleet, which fell into disrepair after the collapse of the Soviet Union, equipping it with some of the country’s most advanced warships. Russia has been building a huge war fortress there in order to protect resources that they claim are theirs. The Military Balance, a publication of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, the Russians already possess the largest number of modern cruisers and destroyers (10) of any Russian fleet, along with 22 attack submarines and numerous support vessels. Also in the Murmansk area are dozens of advanced MiG fighter planes and a wide assortment of anti-aircraft defense systems. Finally, as 2019 ended, Russian military officials indicated for the first time that they had deployed to the Arctic the Kinzhal air-launched ballistic missile, a weapon capable of hypersonic velocities (more than five times the speed of sound), again presumably to a base in the Murmansk region just 125 miles from Norway’s Finnmark, the site of the upcoming NATO exercise. More significant is the way Moscow has been strengthening its nuclear forces in the region. Like the United States, Russia maintains a “triad”of nuclear delivery systems, including intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), long-range “heavy” bombers, and submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs). Under the terms of the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START), signed by the two countries in 2010, the Russians can deploy no more than 700 delivery systems capable of carrying no more than 1,550 warheads.

That pact will, however, expire in February 2021 unless the two sides agree to an extension, which appears increasingly unlikely now. According to the Arms Control Association, the Russians are currently believed to be deploying the warheads they are allowed under New START on 66 heavy bombers, 286 ICBMs, and 12 submarines with 160 SLBMs. Eight of those nuclear-armed subs are, in fact, assigned to the Northern Fleet, which means about 110 missiles with as many as 500 warheads. The exact numbers remain shrouded in secrecy are deployed in the Murmansk area. For Russian nuclear strategists, such nuclear-armed submarines are considered the most “survivable “of the country’s retaliatory systems. In the event of a nuclear exchange with the United States, the country’s heavy bombers and ICBMs could prove relatively vulnerable to pre-emptive strikes as their locations are known and can be targeted by American bombs and missiles with near-pinpoint accuracy. Those subs, however, can leave Murmansk and disappear into the wide Atlantic Ocean at the onset of any crisis and so presumably remain hidden from U.S. spying eyes. To do so, however, requires that they pass through the Barents Sea, avoiding the NATO forces lurking nearby. For Moscow, in other words, the very possibility of deterring a U.S. nuclear strike hinges on its ability to defend its naval stronghold in Murmansk, while maneuvering its submarines past Norway’s Finnmark region. No wonder, then, that this area has assumed enormous strategic importance for Russian military planners—and the upcoming Cold Response 2020 is sure to prove challenging to them. NATO forces held a military exercise called Trident Juncture in 2018 near Norway with 50,000 participants, giving troops a taste of what Arctic combat might be like. The Marine Corps has also sent a rotating contingent of forces to Norway, where Marines are pre-positioning vehicles, weapons, and ammunition in massive caves and learning to fight on skis. Noting the region’s importance, Air Force General Terrence O’Shaughnessy, head of U.S. Northern Command and North American Aerospace Defense Command, has said, “The Arctic is the first line of defense.” So if there is a war, it will literally be a cold one.