Russian president Vladimir Putin put the world on strategic nuclear alert with an ominous message.  He linked his threat to use nuclear weapons with justification of the U.S. ending WWII by bombing Japan with two atomic bombs.

MOSCOW, Sept 30 (Reuters) — Russian President Vladimir Putin said the United States had created a "precedent" by using nuclear weapons against Japan at the end of World War Two, in a speech filled with hostility towards the West delivered from the Kremlin on Friday.

Fears of nuclear war have grown since Putin said last week he was "not bluffing" when he said Russia was prepared to use nuclear weapons to defend its territory.

Best take note: if someone is threatening to kill you, believe him — and Putin was building up to putting nuclear weapons front and center even before he invaded Ukraine.

The past is prologue, because he had previously announced in 2019 that his military, specifically his naval submarine force, has essentially developed an operational nuclear doomsday 100-megaton torpedo.

Readers of American Thinker may remember when, on March 14, 2019, I asked a simple, direct question:

Is President Putin diabolically smart or simply a psychopath?  Perhaps he is both, because by his direct action, the world is now a much more dangerous place as the former KGB officer creates a nuclear doomsday scenario backed by real Russian naval capabilities:

• Russia is said to have built a new 100-megaton underwater nuclear doomsday device, and it has threatened the US with it.

• The device goes beyond traditional ideas of nuclear war fighting and poses a direct threat to the future of humanity or life on Earth.

• Nobody has ever built a weapon like this before, because there's almost no military utility in so badly destroying the world.

Now his threat is being made real — and right now, today, is triggering a second Battle of the Atlantic.

As an Annapolis graduate in 1969, I was blessed with having the WWII "Victory at Sea" generation as instructors and powerful senior military courageous leaders.  All of us studied the U.S. and Allied forces fighting the Battle of the Atlantic against Nazi subs.

Our first superintendent was Admiral Draper Kauffman, with two Navy Crosses and founder of the SEALs.  When he retired, our second superintendent was Admiral James Calvert, with two Silver Stars and two Bronze Stars, having been present on his submarine for the Tokyo Bay surrender ceremonies.

Admiral Calvert also authored one the most important books ever penned about applied U.S. Navy submarine deterrence capability; Surface at The Pole, in which he took his nuclear submarine the USS Skate to the North Pole to show Russia we can fight you anywhere, any time.

Sadly, those dangerous old days of fighting a submarine war in the north Atlantic are now coming back with a vengeance.  A powerful breaking headline from Fox News was just published: "Russian nuclear submarine armed with 'doomsday' weapon disappears from Arctic harbor."

Putin's Belgorod submarine is said to be capable of creating a 1,600-ft 'radioactive tsunami.'

The first Battle of the Atlantic was a "kill or be killed" fight in the unforgiving North Atlantic, especially in winter.  The losses were staggering on both sides, but victory was achieved because of the 36,000 German U-Boat sailors, only 3,000 survived the end of the war.

Getting ready for another Battle of the Atlantic since Putin's threat in 2019, the U.S. Navy anticipated such events and has brilliantly stayed a step ahead.  The Navy reconstituted our 2nd Fleet, reaching from the Atlantic seaboard into the far reaches of the Arctic, on August 25, 2018.

Giving credit where credit is due, in my lifelong connection with our Sea Services since Annapolis and earlier in my schooldays, with my father serving on the USS Triton, SSRN/SSN-586, and then the Henry Clay, SSBN-625, I believe that the then–chief of naval operations (CNO), Admiral John Richardson, is  perhaps the smartest CNO in my time.  Admiral Richardson selected Vice Admiral Woody Lewis, who was widely respected as visionary fighting admiral, to stand up the 2nd Fleet.

In a recent book with my co-author  Robbin Laird, A Maritime Kill Web Force in The Making, we devote an entire chapter to the stand-up of the 2nd Fleet.  Now reported — as often said, ripped from the headlines — on October 3, 2022, the newest and most powerful aircraft carrier in the world, the USS Gerald Ford, CVN-78, just sortied out of Norfolk to join the 2nd Fleet.  And another fighting admiral, now commanding the 2nd Fleet, was just quoted:

Vice Adm. Daniel Dwyer, commander of the US 2nd Fleet said that CSG 12, which the Ford carrier is leading, will range throughout the Atlantic Ocean operating with navies of allied and partner nations.

Facing down the Russian threat of death to all Americans, we all should wish the 2nd Fleet Godspeed, good luck, and good hunting.  Our lives may soon depend on our fighting Navy.  And the U.S. Navy doesn't bluff.

Image: World Economic Forum via Flickr, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.