I think Putin is smart enough to not get drawn into something tit for tat with the US. I would bet he knows he’ll come out on the short end. Knowing that Russia is better prepared to survive an all out exchange, my bet is that he would surprise us by going big right off the bat, .
Then you add in the rumors of his failing health...
anyone who knows history knows that when governments are faced with desperate situations at home (and ours certainly is), they often will start wars.
ours is doing this. russia has openly said this is being escalated to distract from the economic stuff happening here. anyone with a brain should know it, no matter what you think of russia.
at this point, i would regard the US as the single most dangerous great power in the world, because we no longer act rationally.
russia acts rationally, even if it is not popular - you can look at their actions, history, and concern, and see where decisions are coming from. at least, some people can. a fair amount of the population is quite nicely brainwashed now. mass formation in a matter of weeks, just look at FR.
china acts rationally.
the US? if I look at our objective national interests, I can only conclude that our government acts in what would be regarded as reckless and insane manners.
we are going to push until we start world war 3.
then we are going to push until russia using some kind of nuke.
then we are going to use a bigger one than they did, and push them to retaliate further.
So weird...I am speedreading, and “failing health” came up as “faith healing.”