BobClay
Well-Known Forumite
Putin's strategy of supporting Trump, thereby fracturing the USA, and supporting Boris on Brexit, thereby fracturing Europe was successful. His policy of a blitzkrieg of the Ukraine has become severely unhooked. When he says he will use nuclear weapons, and follows that up with 'I am not
bluffing,' that sounds to me like desperation. And desperate men do desperate things.
During the Cold War, leaders of the USSR such as Khrushchev and Brezhnev were both World War 2 veterans (or the Great Patriotic War as the Russians called it.) They had seen first hand what a major conflict can do to a country, and the USSR took a severe hammering in the first two years of that conflict. Consequently while they were loaded to the gills with nuclear weapons, they understood the meaning of 'deterrent.' The only thing a nuclear weapon is good for is as a deterrent. If that doesn't work, we're talking Armageddon here. And I mean Armageddon, I've been to the Peace Park in Hiroshima, I've seen what a small fission bomb can do, and thermo-nuclear weapons are orders of magnitudes more powerful.
Putin isn't of the calibre of those old time Soviet leaders, he's a loose cannon whose successes have gone to his head, so this war in Ukraine is pushing him into a corner.
If he uses a nuclear weapon, even a tactical nuclear weapon, what does he think is going to happen next ?
Does he care ?
A shit or bust scenario with an incomprehensible 'game over' conclusion.
bluffing,' that sounds to me like desperation. And desperate men do desperate things.
During the Cold War, leaders of the USSR such as Khrushchev and Brezhnev were both World War 2 veterans (or the Great Patriotic War as the Russians called it.) They had seen first hand what a major conflict can do to a country, and the USSR took a severe hammering in the first two years of that conflict. Consequently while they were loaded to the gills with nuclear weapons, they understood the meaning of 'deterrent.' The only thing a nuclear weapon is good for is as a deterrent. If that doesn't work, we're talking Armageddon here. And I mean Armageddon, I've been to the Peace Park in Hiroshima, I've seen what a small fission bomb can do, and thermo-nuclear weapons are orders of magnitudes more powerful.
Putin isn't of the calibre of those old time Soviet leaders, he's a loose cannon whose successes have gone to his head, so this war in Ukraine is pushing him into a corner.
If he uses a nuclear weapon, even a tactical nuclear weapon, what does he think is going to happen next ?
Does he care ?
A shit or bust scenario with an incomprehensible 'game over' conclusion.