[Zhang Fei]

[If it were just Iran....unfortunately they are closely allied with the Russians

You want nuclear war?. It won’t be boots on ground]

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The Russians won’t initiate a nuclear attack against a country with significant second strike capability. Any war fought with a peer nuclear power with the ability to wreak large-scale nuclear retaliation will be fought on a conventional level. Because no leader wants (1) his family and everyone he knows wiped out and (2) his record in the history books to involve the destruction of tens of millions of his own countrymen. National leaders assume their posts for all kinds of reasons. But the one minimum objective they definitely try to fulfill is not be recorded in the history books as the worst leader every for their particular realm. And the nuclear slaughter of half of Russia’s population, after he initiated a nuclear strike against the US, would mark Putin down as the worst Russian leader ever, by orders of magnitude. That’s not even counting the more personal loss of all his kin and friends.

[familyop]

The race is on for hypersonic missile development in the U.S.A., Russia and China—one of several trends that might introduce surprises. Communist leaders do focus on shelter and security for the upper echelons of their party faithful but care less about their general populations (see human waves, malnutrition and stress fractures in women, and all).

[NorseViking]

I know that you have just conveyed the view of DC elites on war and it is awfully alarming.
Just remember how and why WWI started and ended. I believe everyone involved expected it would be a little bit more ‘conventional’.

[Nifster]

You seem to think Putin wouldn’t respond to abUS nuclear attack in Iran....wrong