If you remember the cuban missile crisis .

You will recall how you felt , it was quite terrifing to think we were possibly going to go into a nuclear war . This seemed at the time to go on forever , each day it was maybe , maybe not , up and down with fear being the base reaction especially if you we a kid like me in Jr High .

Now I ask this because I wonder how the Iraqis felt in 2003 and now the Iranians in 2007 or even before .

It is just horrifing to think about this stuff for me . Worst of all this attack on Iran seems to be already in place as a go and soon .

It is difficult for me to even post this because these feel like the same scary times all over again with no hope this admin will back off or try deplomacy . They just want the oil and control period .

now must be much worse than 1962 America.

For one, John F. Kennedy was a smart man, with integrity and intelligence, and a good sense of right and wrong. We have none of those qualities in the current occupier of the WH.

Given a choice, I'd rather take my chances with Kennedy's finger on the nuke button than *'s.

Edit to add: A friend's father was in the Air Force, and told me the story of him sitting in his fighter jet, engine idling, ready to take off at a second's notice. Hundreds of others were doing the same thing.

We were very, very close back in 1962.

in 7th grade. My mother was taking me to get a physical at my doc's office up in Hollywood. We could not cross 441 because of military convoys headed south. This was before any announcement was made. I recall my mother saying, "This means war. I saw these convoys back in 1942." It frightened me, greatly. Later that day Kennedy made the televised announcement.

I also had a boy scout camp-out postponed the following weekend because the army was using our campgrounds in South Miami.

I was stationed at El Toro in 1962. We were preparing for a "trans-pac" to Japan. Our planes had been junked and we were to get the planes of the squadron we were replacing.

El Toro was designated a target area during the crisis and all of the other squadrons were deployed to other, less dangerous (theoretically) bases. Because we had no planes, our squadron was left at El Toro. They literally chained the barracks doors shut and posted MPs to keep an eye on us and marched us to chow.

An unpleasant feeling being the sacrificial sitting ducks.

school, took the family out for a 3-day visit to the countryside, just in case Bremerhaven got nuked.

Being 9, I had only an inkling of it, couldn't really conceptualize it, but I knew what was going on.

I have to wonder how Iranian children are feeling right now.

and it was very scary. However, I had confidence in JFK and am still grateful he was President at the time. Today does feel very much like then, except it's worse because there are maniacs in charge of our country.

about his fathers actions along with Kennedy's actions, as well during those few weeks.

I was scared to death, seriously scared. if the little tyrant isn't stopped and soon I fear for our country. Actually the whole world

I have written here a few times about my feelings during that week. That is when I became a news junkie for the first time.

I remember accepting that it might come. Maybe that is something that goes along with being a powerless fourteen year old girl. But I think it may have been the first time in my life that I had to face down fear and find a way to live with things I could not control.

Does anyone remember when Khrushchev was forced out of power a couple of years later? I was still in high school then, too. It seemed like so much time had passed between the Cuban missile crisis and his resignation. It was a different world.

Maybe it is individual perception. I don't feel the same things now that I felt during that crisis. But I think it may be coming, first in the form of a Constitutional crisis. They are playing brinkmanship with with Congress and the Constitution. When they force the crisis, and I think they will, then I will worry more. It is what comes after that that scares me.

I hope they haven't purged all the intelligent people from government services. We will need them to work with Congress.

It was awesome, in the real sense of the word.

But I don't recall fear about it; I recall fear about my mother (who is still around, age 82!).

Then my parents went wild bottling water and stocking up on canned food. They got the coleman-style stove and lantern out and stored everything in the basement. We had no "bomb shelter", but a nice deep basement where they had a corner sandbagged up for the five of us.
Like that would have done any good. I was six, in the first grade and a bit scared.