Right. It has to be borne in mind that Putin views this sort of thing entirely differently than we do. No bigee for us. Death threat for his country for Putin, regardless how irrational that might be.
Thinking back it becomes clear how Trump was able to elicit quiescence from Putin for four solid years! It wasn’t Trump’s unpredictability alone, though that was important. It was also Trump’s discomfort with and criticism of NATO that eased Putin’s irrational (to us) fears.
Compare that with Biden’s “bull in a China shop”, back to all out support no matter what and no matter the cost, relationship with NATO. That approach has put the fear of God into Putin, whereas Trump’s ambiguity had worked in the favor of the USA . . . . . and the world including especially Ukraine.
Also Trump was willing to meet in person with Putin. Has Biden done that? I do not think he has since assuming office, though they have met via video conference; not the same thing.
You mean it’s better to do a video conference with Putin than to be embarrassed seating across a 10 feet table? Putin does the long-table treatment to everybody he dislikes, including Macron and UN Secretary Guterres.
I think he’s been using that table even with his own advisors. I suspect he fears for his own life and won’t let anyone near him (other than his personal chef and security, etc).
The lawmaker claimed that two of Russia’s Sarmat ‘Satan 2’ missiles would destroy the entirety of America’s east coast - before adding it would take just “two missiles for the west coast” as well.
"Four missiles and there’ll be nothing left.
And once again, middle America gets treated like crap…
North Korea officially took over the U.N. disarmament conference on Monday,according to NK News. The U.N. move quickly drew criticism from nongovernmental organizations that noted North Korea’s major nuclear weapons development efforts in recent months.
Most Americans alive today have no memory whatsoever of the Cuban missile crisis.
Messing around with the Russians is genuinely dangerous. They strenuously disagree with us on a LOT of stuff. And they are serious.
Many of my friends, and all of my best friends, are already dead. They missed out on the pandemic. Me still being around at least for now, I hope it does not turn out that they also will have missed out on WWIII.
Now, hold your horses a minute. Iran still needs a couple of pallets of cash to finance construction of the rockets which can deliver nuclear warheads.
No one is shortsighted / insane enough to give them pallets of cash, so we are as safe as ever.
Obama’s Iranian diplomacy finally culminated in Iran having the capacity to make a nuke, but they haven’t claimed to have actually done it yet.
senior Iranian official said his country has the ability to produce a weapon.
In the meanwhile, Israel is getting ready for (possibly nuclear) retaliation if they get attacked. Middle Eastern instability continues, with higher stakes.
Which was the goal, I believe stated by the anointed one at the time.
I’m not sure where to go with this. How many attacks are they waiting for? Israel has been attacked by Iranian funded groups for at least 40 years. If you’re suggesting they will wait for a nuclear attack, they’re not that stupid.
Do you have a sense for whether they’re willing to do a nuclear first strike, or just use them in retaliation to one? OOH, Waiting to get your capital blown off the map seems stupid in the face of “Death to Israel” guys who probably mean it; OOTH, normalizing nuclear first strikes seem very risky as well.
they will probably try conventional weapons first. The Iraelis do have bunker buster bombs and have used them against Hamas tunnels in Gaza. those may not be big enough to destroy the Iran nuclear facilities though.
another wild card is the Israeli political situation. The super egotistical Israeli politicians will not coalesce around Bibi, which would be the logical thing. So they may have another non-dispositive election.
I don’t have any sense at all, but believe they will do what is necessary to keep from being wiped off the map. That doesn’t mean they will try a nuc first strike, but I don’t see how they have much of an alternative.
IIRC, the current bunker busters cannot reach the Iranian labs and factories. If the Israelis try conventional weapons first, then Iran will respond with nucs, and have the excuse of self-defense. There are some theoretical, to the best of my knowledge, weapons that Israel may try first, but that seems the least likely.
As for the political situation in Israel, they may be able to self-delude themselves into trusting the iron dome, but I don’t think so. The Jews in Israel are Israelis first, and liberals second.
