The Guardian calls for NATO to declare war on Russia
(archive.ph)
You're viewing a single comment thread. View all comments, or full comment thread.
Comments (60)
sorted by:
Uhh no.
Yes, nukes cancel out and conventional weapons are still able to be used.
Yes, it is actually.
Not true at all. Look at the Cuban missile crisis. Kennedy was willing to start launching air attacks on Cuba. Khrushchev backed down because he realized Castro was a lunatic who was saying he was totally happy to die to take down America. That was a unique situation and MAD STILL worked because the Russians didn't want to die, so they backed down.
The Russians acted in escalatory ways plenty of times in the Cold War, and in some cases so did the US. MAD proved itself time and time again to work because nobody was willing to launch 1st out of fear of retaliation.
MAD also prevented chemical weapons from being used in WW2.
YOUR formulation means that Russia can just keep invading everyone and nobody will ever do shit because they fear Russia's nukes and are frozen with fear. That's not only a load of shit, it would INCENTIVIZE Russia to act very aggressively with its nukes and to even use them since it could see how afraid of them everyone else was.
You're underappreciating the brinkmanship behind MAD. A NATO attack brings us much closer to it than an invasion of Ukraine. The Cuban Missile Crisis is a better analog of the former, which is why it was resolved without conflict and doesn't support your point. The Cold War was just invasion after invasion with the 2 main contenders always in the corner or fighting lesser opponents. Russia actually can just keep invading "everyone", like America did, until NATO says "raise you" or pre-empts them.
In the Korean and Vietnam Wars, Soviet and Chinese pilots flew missions using their own aircraft against US pilots, and fought them directly.
Stop pretending that it didn't happen, or that if we had American "volunteers" flying F22s over Ukraine and blowing the shit out of Russians, that would be any different than what the USSR did to us in the Cold War.
Stop pretending what didn't happen? You didn't even attempt to actually process what I wrote. You can take the man out of Reddit...
It was rather Che than Castro.
There were instances of chemical warfare in WWII, especially in China. (Biological too.)
No it was Castro. Nobody gives a shit about Che. He wasn't the leader. Please consult the wikipedia at least before you "correct" me.
It was Che who was excited about actual nuclear war.
Castro's slogan "socialism or death" didn't really shorten to "death".
Ok bro you made me pull up the wiki:
Why Khrushchev blinked:
Basically Castro was a lunatic that didn't care if Cuba got glassed. Maybe he thought he would get 40 virgin gopniks in Communism. Castro affirmed his desire for nuclear war in an interview in 1992, and then expressed regret in 2010.
Khrushchev did not want nuclear war. Castro did. Khrushchev knew that he couldn't control Castro from Moscow, so rather than give Castro the opportunity to start WW3, Khrushchev rug pulled him and caved in. Khrushchev "lost" and suffered a loss of face, because that was preferable to death.
While there might be an occasional lunatic like Castro out there, the Soviet/Russian nuclear arsenal is safeguarded against such people. It is controlled by people who don't want to die anymore than NATO does, which is why this nuclear brinkmanship from Putin, if it works, will create a very dangerous situation, which is why we need to stand up to it and not allow him to think that it is working. Show no fear.