Combat tactics, Mr. Ryan. By turning into the torpedo, Ramius closed the distance before it could arm itself.

For movie buffs who spend a lot of time focused on political thrillers, the quote in this diary's title might ring a bell.

For political buffs who spend a lot time thinking about why the President included chained CPI in his budget, the above quote - from a movie - might be the "11th dimensional chess" that all of us wanted the President to play, but are afraid he eschewed in offering what amounts to a cut to Social Security.

How do these two relate? It's a long journey to get there, but I hope you'll follow me along.

The quote is from The Hunt for Red October, a political thriller set in the waning days of the Cold War in which Soviet Ballistic Missile Submarine Captain Marko Ramius (Sean Connery) attempts to defect with his fellow officers to the United States, in the process handing over a cutting-edge technology. The problem is, the Americans think Ramius is coming to the US seaboard to launch a nuclear war; and the Soviets are attempting to stop Ramius from defecting.

Ramius and his officers are - in a sense - caught between two groups of vastly differing ideologies who both desperately want to stop them.

But, there is one American - a CIA Analyst - who guesses correctly that Ramius is actually trying to defect: Jack Ryan (Alex Baldwin).

The quote from the title of this diary occurs in the third act of the film, by which point Jack Ryan has convinced an American submarine captain (Capt. Mancuso) and the head of the CIA to at least give him a chance to contact Ramius in order to find out if the Soviet Captain actually wishes to defect. In so doing, Ryan - who is not a naval officer - ends up with Mancuso on the Soviet ballistic submarine with Ramius, just as a Soviet attack submarine has caught-up with Ramius.

In that moment, the Soviet attack submarine fires a torpedo on Ramius' ballistic missile submarine, sparking the following scene.

https://m.dailykos.com/stories/2013/4/12/1201264/–Combat-Tactics-Mr-Ryan