One of the great things about the Bananafish community and contests (and some other writing groups on the platform) is that others, like you and @calluna leave these detailed in-depth comments about the author's stories. As I am usually on the curation side of these stories, it is great to see the writers getting lots of great feedback. So, first, thanks for that.

Now then, I think while I did try to play on the tried and true battle of USA - Russia, I tried to put a bit of a different spin on it with the insertion of Canada. I don't think I did it effectively though, since after having my wife read it before posting she said it didn't make any difference to her, and that it could have been any country. But my point of that insertion was to try and make it so Russia wasn't necessarily the "bad guy." Instead they were simply trying to get the U.S. to leave the world alone and worry about their own neighborhood, even if their means of getting to that point was at it's core evil.

Another comment my wife made was that it was very much a Twilight Zone episode. Which I suppose will almost always on some level be true about anything I write. I am a huge life-long fan of the TV series. Of course it wasn't until she said that, that I began breaking it down in a TZ way. After thinking about it many of their episodes do leave a lot open for interpretation as to who is the good and who is the evil. It is one of the reasons I love the show, which again is why I suppose my writing somewhat reflects the same sort of angle.