Posted on 03/19/2022 4:33:45 PM PDT by PreciousLiberty
Since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin has given orders to increase the alert level of Russia’s nuclear forces and has made veiled nuclear threats. The blatant aggression against Ukraine has shocked Europe and the world. The war is a tragedy for Ukraine. It also exposes the limits of the West’s reliance on nuclear deterrence.
Deterrence refers to the idea that possessing nuclear weapons protects a nation from attack, through the threat of overwhelming retaliation. This concept is widely credited for helping prevent war between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War. However, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine casts a harsh light on its downsides. Most obvious is that Putin is using nuclear deterrence not to protect Russia but rather to have his way in Ukraine. Russia’s nuclear weapons deter the West from intervening with conventional military forces to defend Ukraine.
(Excerpt) Read more at scientificamerican.com ...
This war will likely upend the European security order. It also demonstrates how little real protection nuclear weapons provide. The world would be better off without these weapons.
This is empty-headed liberal thinking at its finest. First of all, the world has been demonstrably better off (granted, so far) WITH nuclear weapons. We've not had world wars killing tens of millions of people...
I submit that nuclear weapons have been the biggest force for peace in human history...
Aside from that, the comment that "The world would be better off without these weapons" simply ignores the REALITY that these weapons have been discovered, and they will NEVER be "un-discovered".
A treaty to completely ban them would be wrong-headed and dangerous, since a bad actor could well discover a new way to make them that's undetectable...and a nuclear war is both thinkable and winnable if you're the only one that possesses them...
But she’s still right.
Russia is using nuclear blackmail to keep everyone at bay while they commit the crime.
The bluff should be called. There are no allies for this in Europe. It isn’t 1914. Only one country is doing this.
Once someone, anyone uses a nuke, all bets are off.
What, Trump is advising Putin now? When’d that happen?
Kind of like when Putin stole a Superbowl ring from (Patriots owner) Robert Kraft back in 2005, only scaled up a few orders of magnitude.
What you say is true that only 1 country is doing this. But the main reason I think they are getting away with it is because China is supporting them. Taiwan will be next and they will call in their chip with Russia and I suspect that they’ll get support from Russia in return for this.
So it’s a New World War even if the main combatants haven’t begun to fight yet. China and Russia are a new bloc.
Which is good, since that's provides deterrence from using them in the first place.
Personally, I think most politicians are pragmatic enough that they'd do everything possible to de-escalate and avoid an all-out exchange. One of those could ruin your whole day...
How many countries has the US invaded in the last 30 years?
“Small” tactical nukes, are still nukes. Use of a tactical nuke against someone is still a nuclear attack.
Not only that but what would be a target?
The Russian and Ukrainian ground forces are locked in battle. Putin couldn’t nuke the Ukrainians without hitting his own troops at the same time.
Just be ready for a Bay of Pigs type scenario.
You could have a point, if the US had threatened Russia or China if they interfered with nukes like is going on now. Of course, you have no point though than to be a joke.
“Personally, I think most politicians are pragmatic enough that they’d do everything possible to de-escalate and avoid an all-out exchange. One of those could ruin your whole day...”
Unless you are a Moslem.
“ Russia is using nuclear blackmail to keep everyone at bay while they commit the crime.”
This is why the answer to nuclear blackmail is never to step back. It’s to step UP and make counter threats. Trump knows this very well. That’s why Trump responded to Kim Jong Un with ‘I’ve got a bigger button and mine works !’ Kim fell silent after that.
Contrast with Biden and his team of idiots ‘ OMG OMG…wwiii. We can’t have ww iii ! Must avoid nuclear war! ’ And Putin knows exactly what to threaten the west with.
If Putin popped a nuke in Ukraine, Sweden and Poland would have nukes by the end of
The takehome from this war is that nukes are THE essential element in one’s armamentarium. Ukraine gave up nukes. Does anyone think Putin would have invaded if even one of those nukes was even plausibly functional?
The Norks will never give them up now (if they ever considered it). Taiwan is, or should be, working feverishly. The SoKoreans, Japanese, maybe the Swedes - anyone with money, technical know-how and a dangerous neighborhood is going to move towards nukes, not away.
BOOYAH!!!
You threaten to smash the bully in the face twice as hard. Reagan and Trump understood how to handle thug scum like Putin. You make them worry about what you will do to them. Cowards always worry what the bully will do. “Give them the valuables else they’ll get mad”.
Watch for an unexplained pull back.
A tactical nuke’s radius is small and the radiation would dissipate quickly.
I am not advocating their use. But they aren’t Hiroshima.
Mr. President, I’m not saying we wouldn’t get our hair mussed. But I do say no more than ten to twenty million killed, tops. Uh, depending on the breaks.”
George C. Scott - Gen. ‘Buck’ Turgidson
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