micro: > Re: “This whole thing was started by Putin and he alone is to blame for all the carnage and destruction.”
Decomposed > Nyet. This whole thing was started by NATO expressing intent to make Ukraine a member, which meant NATO troops and missiles would have been parked 218 miles from Moscow.
While it is true that NATO expansion was in the cards. NATO was founded as a defensive organization. I just can't see NATO invading Russia.
Russia has a long and bloody history of annexing other countries real estate.
Since some time in the 1900s many European countries divested themselves of 'foreign holdings'. The British Empire divested itself of India and Pakistan etc.etc. The United States spun the Phillippines off as an independent country.
At the close of WWII Russia seized most of European Europe and a large chunk of pre-war Germany. It shouldn't take any imagination at all to suspect that Putin would like nothing better than to re-constitute the old soviet empire.
And, earlier you opined that 'Zim don't believe Putin would initiate a nuclear war'. (Possibly misquoted). If NATO did indeed march on Moscow Putin would 'throw the bomb'. That fact alone should be enough to deter a NATO invasion of Russia.
Putin keeps threatening to 'throw nukes' if the rest of the world does not let him have his way . . . But except for possibly China I don't believe the 'rest of the world' sees any upside to invading Russia. No existential threat to Russia, no credible justification for Russia to use nukes. Is Putin really willing to invite the total destruction of Russia over Ukraine?
And there are several other factors in the mix.
1.) Given the poor performance of Russia's army in the invasion of Ukraine . . . What are the odds Russia's nuclear arsenal isn't just as decrepit? Does Russia still have the techs and knowledge to maintain their nukes?
2.) How good is the 'West's' anti-missile defenses coming along? Given what We and the 'friends of Israel' and the Israeli's did to iran's missile barrage . . . can Putin be certain his nukes will arrive on target?
3.) Given the absence of a credible threat to the annihilation of Russia . . . will Putin's 'nuclear trigger pullers' actually shoot?
Zim.
Mad Poet Strikes Again.
| 
