Ukraine invasion: Would Putin press the
nuclear button?
BBC News,
by
Steve Rosenberg
Original Article
Posted By: Dreadnought,
2/27/2022 10:59:11 PM
Let me begin with an admission. So many times, I've thought: "Putin would never do this." Then he goes and does it.
"He'd never annex Crimea, surely?" He did.
"He'd never start a war in the Donbas." He did.
"He'd never launch a full-scale invasion of Ukraine." He has. I've concluded that the phrase "would never do" doesn't apply to Vladimir Putin.
And that raises an uncomfortable question:
"He'd never press the nuclear button first. Would he?"
It's not a theoretical question. Russia's leader has just put his country's nuclear forces on "special" alert, complaining of "aggressive statements" over Ukraine by Nato leaders.
Listen closely to what President Putin has been saying.
Reply 1 - Posted by:
billsv 2/27/2022 11:17:15 PM (No. 1085149)
I read that the US Doomsday airplane is airborne several days ago
8 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
Dreadnought 2/27/2022 11:19:24 PM (No. 1085150)
Answer? In his alleged current mental state he might use a tactical battlefield nuke. Incrementalism.
11 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
formerNYer 2/27/2022 11:25:01 PM (No. 1085154)
xiden is senile, demented and incompetent and putin is maniacal and a sociopath. God help us!
22 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
snakeoil 2/27/2022 11:32:29 PM (No. 1085157)
Vlad the Impaler is near the end of his life. He might want to go down in history as a great conquerer. Fidel Castro and Mao wanted Russia to attack the US with nuclear weapons. But Nikita turned them down. Not sure Vlad would. Killing people doesn't bother him.
11 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
dickiedeeb 2/28/2022 12:36:05 AM (No. 1085186)
Russias legitimate national security concerns were ignored and derided for years and years theyre not doing the BOHICA anymore and i dont blame them a bit What if china and mexico formed the CHINCO alliance and china stationed a couple mechanized divisions and missle regiments in mexico...what would the USSA globohomo empire do?
10 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
DVC 2/28/2022 2:01:21 AM (No. 1085208)
I hope not, but at this point, I am no longer convinced that Putin is sane.
12 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
swarfer 2/28/2022 2:38:08 AM (No. 1085227)
Recall the Cuban missile crisis if you were alive at the time. JFK took us to the brink of nuclear war to get those missiles removed. Seems Putin is doing something similar to keep NATO out of Ukraine. The difference is that we weren’t sure the missiles would be removed from Cuba, but I think we’re sure NATO won ‘t do anything stupid, I guess we are, at least I’m pretty sure.
5 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
mifla 2/28/2022 5:08:18 AM (No. 1085275)
I can see Putin ordering the use of nuclear weapons, but not sure his generals would follow that order, knowing their lives as they know it would be over.
6 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
Redwing57 2/28/2022 9:29:02 AM (No. 1085439)
Given Putin's personality, I'm not sure he'll accept defeat in the Ukraine invasion. His generals may have been lying to him for some time about the readiness and capability of their conventional forces. If so, there may be a big gap between conventional capability, and nukes.
If his conventional capability can't get the job done, it wouldn't be terribly surprising if he made the awful decision to escalate to his fallback nuclear capability.
I pray this does not happen!
1 person likes this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
Strike3 2/28/2022 9:51:39 AM (No. 1085467)
Of course he would. Putin's main concern at this point is saving face because the world knows he has failed in Ukraine. Look at all of the stupid moves that Hitler made after he realized that WW2 was not going in the Nazi direction. Rational behavior is long gone.
1 person likes this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
Strike3 2/28/2022 10:00:07 AM (No. 1085479)
The good news is that most of Russia's land-based nuclear arsenal was flooded in underground silos and bunkers twenty years ago and is basically inoperable. It's the undersea boomers that would carry out the strike. I hope we are still capable of tracking them but given that our intelligence services spent most of the past five years focused on Donald Trump, I have my doubts.
1 person likes this.
Reply 12 - Posted by:
MDConservative 2/28/2022 10:31:38 AM (No. 1085498)
Let's suppose Russia detonates a tactical nuke in Ukraine...what will Britain, the US or NATO do about it? Get ready to duck and cover if they do. The knuckleheads will likely "respond" to make their point with a detonation in Russian territory. And then the gloves likely come off.
0 people like this.
Reply 13 - Posted by:
DVC 2/28/2022 11:24:21 AM (No. 1085564)
So, back with the Russia-phile "legitimate national security concerns". Yeah, taking over your neighbors wirh violent invasion is "legitimate".
Sorry, I can't buy that Kremlin BS.
0 people like this.
Reply 14 - Posted by:
DVC 2/28/2022 11:26:09 AM (No. 1085569)
Where'd you hear that fairy tale, #11? Perhaps you aren't aware that Russia has huge numbers of ICBM launchers on mobile truck platforms.
1 person likes this.
Reply 15 - Posted by:
DVC 2/28/2022 11:27:23 AM (No. 1085570)
I get the impression that at least a couple here think that Putin launching a nuke would be "kinda OK" but if we responded, WE would be stupid.
0 people like this.
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