I saw some people in the Ukraine megathread advocating for Russia to not launch the nukes in return if America were to nuke them, and it’s scaring me the fuck out rn.
If whole premise of MAD is that a nuclear first strike, while killing your enemies, would be suicide. The whole premise is that of a Mexican standoff where if one party shoots, the other shoots also.
The suicidal nature of a nuclear first strike is the only thing keeping the world from nuclear devastation rn.
Please don’t fucking advocate for victims of an American nuclear first strike to not retaliate.
(BTW, America is the only power who hasn’t relinquished their right to a first strike anyways)
we don’t have any control over this, lol. but its nice to hope that the underlings of the suicidal bourgeoisie have the ability and could just say no to launching bombs (first or in retaliation)
There’s so many stories about soldiers who refused orders to fire nukes after a false alarm and saved the world. There are no such stories where that alarm was legitimate because the only nuclear weapons ever used in armed conflict were used against a nation without second strike capability.
International relations are about power, not morality. To acknowledge that nuclear war is the worst case scenario for everyone involved would involve taking the option off the table and removing the deterrent. So everyone has to act like they’re ready to do a second strike.
There is a nonzero chance most of our nukes were built by the Elon Musks of the 60’s.
That and as of a few years ago, there was apparently a big training/morale issue with the nuclear arsenal branch of the Air Force. The staff of the nuclear facilities had really low morale and were apparently smoking pot and doing LSD lol.
The only way the concept of a “red line” works is if you actually do pull the trigger when it is crossed
If you don’t, your opponent now knows you were always bluffing. The equation actually becomes much much less stable because it’s now completely unpredictable what actions would provoke a decisive response.
This is why my personal nightmare scenario for this war is if Russia utilizes a tactical nuclear weapon against an exclusively military target in Ukraine. Such an action would beg a response by the West in some way, but since the use of such a weapon wouldn’t be targeted against NATO forces, it’s completely unpredictable how the West would actually respond. But if it doesn’t respond, it gives Russia a free hand to use more tactical nuclear weapons in Ukraine, and even worse would open Pandora’s Box regarding the use of tactical nuclear weapons by any nation.
Hmm. It sounds like one solution to this scenario would be for Ukraine and any other state fearful of such a tactical strike to form some sort of defensive alliance. Of particular value would be one which includes powers capable of delivering a commensurate retaliatory strike. If only such a treaty organization were already present in the region 😟
I’m advocating for the rest of the world nuking th e the united states
