China and the United States have agreed to establish a Cold War style hotline:
A common misperception is that the hotline consisted of little red phones which sat on the desks of the Soviet Premier and POTUS. Not so (you can blame the movie Fail Safe for that particular urban legend). The Soviet hotline linked the Kremlin with the National Military Command Center, which in turn was able to summon the President at a moment’s notice. The hotline was first used prior to the Six Day War, as Ivan was sweating the proximity of their Black Sea Fleet and the US Sixth Fleet in the eastern Med. There have been more modern iterations of the hot line, which –I believe– included satellite and fax technology, so who knows what communication equipment will be invoked to support a US-China link. I humbly suggest that President Bush and Wen Jiabo do it via AOL instant messenger, in the spirit of the digital age and all. There’d certainly be some cruel comedy in receiving a “nuKing u, lol!” text message just prior to Armageddon.
