What would stop Putin from shooting a 1 MT tactical nuke into Kiev or Mariupol if he can't do it by conventional means?
— Benkei — Olivier5
Any fool knows that 1 nuclear strike is enough to black mark that nation for ever. — FreeEmotion
Perhaps he's got some decency left, also. — Olivier5
They communicated, in NATO's general direction, that they will not use tactical nukes in Ukraine. So I don't think they want NATO to believe that they will use nukes in Ukraine.
Or is that too logical? — Olivier5
I do expect him to make us think he will if that's what it takes — Baden
No, they won't get involved. And basically he doesn't need to use a strategic ballistic missiles. A tactical nuke will scare enough people, yet that happening has a very low probability.I can't do anything with this. What limitations? Why? What would stop Putin from shooting a 1 MT tactical nuke into Kiev or Mariupol if he can't do it by conventional means? You think NATO or the US will all of sudden get involved? — Benkei
They communicated, in NATO's general direction, that they will not use tactical nukes in Ukraine. So I don't think they want NATO to believe that they will use nukes in Ukraine.
Or is that too logical?
— Olivier5
I was talking about the future, not now. Is that too logical? — Baden
Trying to invade Ukraine and overthrow the Ukrainian government was totally delusional on divorced from reality. Yet Putin did it. — ssu
he is confined to a cabal that won't say anything against him. Now, if you don't have anybody challenging you, you really might go astray in your thinking. Especially when you start wars. I think the now noted exchange between Putin and his Intelligence Chief shows that people around him are terrified of him. Or at least, it seems like that.
The fact is that politicians start to believe their own lies. Believing ones own lies is then viewed as a sign of strength. — ssu
I see. Another poster who needs an English course. — Olivier5
We normally use WILL to speak about the future. It is always combined with another verb.
Examples of Will:
I will go to the cinema tonight.
He will play tennis tomorrow.
The Kremlin spokeman said they will not use tactical nukes in Ukraine. — Olivier5
I do expect him to make us think he will if that's what it takes — Baden
“However angry both of us would be,” Kahn writes, “we would not start an all-out [nuclear] war” over an invaded country or a nuclear attack “because suicide is not a rational way of expressing one’s anger.” [1]. And if a tit-for tat exchange were used instead (in the event of an actual nuclear attack), it eventually becomes irrational to continue with escalation. Both sides will eventually have an incentive to stop using nuclear weapons as continued conflict becomes unprofitable. — Herman Kahn, author of On Thermonuclear War, RAND Corps physicist, futurist, Princeton professor, and the historical inspiration for Dr. Strangelove.
What basis do you have for the idea that because Russia isn't currently threatening to use nukes, it won't do so? — Baden
“People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.”
― George Orwell — FreeEmotion
They wouldn't even dream of resisting an invasion by a force that threatens their existence as a people without great powers "convincing" them to fight. — SophistiCat
That a few saints might come up with some genius method of passive resistance — Isaac
Leymah is best known for leading a nonviolent movement that brought together Christian and Muslim women to play a pivotal role in ending Liberia’s devastating, fourteen-year civil war in 2003. — Nobel site
(Just on the practical side here, might come back to the more philosophical point about violence later.) — Baden
Who knows? Maybe it will end as the Afghan wars with the Soviet Union first and with the US later ended. But most importantly, since making concessions to Putin's demands will have strategic consequences for the economic and military security of all players around the world, and not just for Ukraine, one can not possibly think that what is at stake is just Putin's demands to end this war. As long as the Ukrainian feel like fighting against the Russian oppression, whoever might feel strategically threatened by Russia and the imperial ambitions of authoritarian regimes around the globe now or in the near future can not do other than side with the Ukrainians one way or the other, forced by the same logic that Putin claimed to justify his attack against Ukraine and fend off the putative threat of having the NATO at their doorstep. And BTW Russian representatives are not stopping to spread their military threats against the West beyond what's happening in Ukraine: they clearly want the world to take the Ukrainian case as an example of the Russian Superpower status and so influence whatever "new world order" may come with it.all I care if you can explain to me how this war can be ended without conceding to at least some of the Russian demands. — Baden
Like Leymah Gbowee? — Srap Tasmaner
Why the dismissive tone, Isaac? What if nonviolence works and violence doesn't? — Srap Tasmaner
Any of the Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine could have refused, could have not joined the army in the first place. — Srap Tasmaner
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