The Russians are coming, the Russians are coming

Russian subs 200 miles off our coast gets the NYTimes all excited here:

A pair of nuclear-powered Russian attack submarines has been patrolling off the eastern seaboard of the United States over recent days, a rare mission that has raised concerns inside the Pentagon and intelligence agencies about a more assertive stance by the Russian military.

The Times is careful to point out that the subs are not ballistic missile boats.

The Times does not to point out that with modern submarine launched cruise missiles it may not matter all that much if the Russians has some sort of secret nefarious plan to attack Harvard or Columbia or something.

I guess the old idea of a sneak commie attack on capitalist Wall Street would be sort of pointless these days - although the Russians may be sore if they lost big in our stock market - but they are hardly alone in the category of stock market losers. Most of the other losers, though, don't have subs to send off our shores. On the other hand, if we don't get our economy rolling soon our large creditor China may put some subs out there with the Russians.

I hope our Navy has enough money to fuel up some P-3's, a few destroyers and helicopters for some ASW training . . . and then invite the Russians to come on in for a beer. Beer now being the international elixir of good feeling, you know.

More about the Akula class subs here.

UPDATE: So what?