“Thank you Meg and your explanation is why I didn’t take your desire to engulf the planet in thermonuclear war seriously.”
It’s not a desire but a calculation:
1. Russia has nuclear weapons
2. Russia constantly threatens to use nuclear weapons
3. If Russia makes any move to use them then it is reasonable and rational to attack their nuclear weapons systems simultaneously. Hopefully by conventional means. Failing that then nuclear.
I don’t exactly have the same emotional ‘circuit breakers’ that other people might have. I take threats very seriously and without regard to concepts like bluffing or bluster.
There’s also a predilection in the West to disregard all threats by non-Western nations as purely bluff or bluster. While this is certainly an aspect of Russian foreign policy it is also an aspect of Russian culture.
The Russians have a habit of talking themselves into ultimately self-defeating actions. In this they are very similar to the Latin Americans who all too often act according to their standards of ‘machismo’ regardless of how blazingly stupid such an action would be.
Therefore when they make nuclear threats I attribute their threats with a certain level of credibility.
Unlike other people such threats have no impact on me. I am not scared of the Russians when they say such things. I simply assess the threat, the capability and credibility of the people issuing the threat, and respond accordingly.
I do take comfort in the fact that there are people in our military who evaluate things the same way I do and they have plans to promptly respond if the Russian nuclear posture suddenly changes. I also take it for granted that the US and NATO have forward deployed intermediate range missiles and other nuclear weapons systems into Poland, Finland, and either or both Estonia and Latvia. They’d be foolish not to.
And here’s a little secret I’ll let you in on: I often mirror provocative comments from pro-Soviet/Russian posters seeking their outraged responses. My recent tagline of “Ruzzians aren’t people” was very effective.
And it was a mirror of the comment currently in my tagline that was stated by a Russian named Anton Krasovsky and amplified on FR by at least seven different posters.
The next time you see me post something “outrageous” about Russia I guarantee you that whatever it will be that a Russian said it first.
Regards,
Megan
And, that’s the reason why I still donate to FR, too, in spite of a few whose actions here lately tell me to stop. (I did back off a lot, though, but I still donate and reckon they make up the difference.)