The unilateral US withdrawal from the Intermediate Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty has reopened the possibility of the United States positioning intermediate nuclear arms in Europe targeting Russia. This is of particular concern to Russian officials because NATO territory comes right up to the Russian border.
Russian President Vladimir Putin was quick to warn the US away from taking such actions, saying Russia would not take the first step in deploying such missiles but would not hesitate to respond if the US starts putting nuclear arms in Europe.
Not only would the host countries be targeted, but Putin says that the US itself would be a target for Russia’s counter-deployments, with a focus on US “decision-making centers.” He said these centers are where the threat to Russia originates.
Putin added that new weapons will be developed to counter US threats, with faster missiles allowing them to have the time to reach targets that are “equivalent to the threats against Russia.”
Putin made the comments in his annual address to parliament, and in addition to increasing efforts to counter US military threats, he also promised a substantial increase in social spending, saying he could provides missiles and butter.
Russia sees Uncle Sam as a bully and sees Britain, Poland, the Baltic States, etc, as the bully’s little brothers.
If a bully sends his little brother(s) over to kick you in the shins, what should you do?
If you thrash his little brother(s) – which is what the bully wants – he will come after you for picking on little guys.
So point your pistol (nuke) at the bully and finish him off. His little brother(s) will scatter.
Here’s to living outside of “decision-making centers.” I may be a hick but at least my kids wont be born with gills and seventy-seven nipples like Kushner’s and Rubio’s. Hows that ocean front property looking now, big shot? Don’t forget the sunblock.
Haha, actually everyone outside a blast zone will all freeze in a nuclear winter, and our ‘kids’, will be any human microfauna that outlives our extinction to evolve anew.
Let me dream, Brock. Goddamn.
Not in Russia. They can protect millions and are prepared to survive, plus they are a lot bigger. Here, no preparation.
True. Siberia is one great big Taiga with a sh*tload of hiding places. Maybe we should all head there. Though Putin probably won’t except queer folk. Thank god Mongolia’s only got one wall to contend with. I’ll sneak in with the nomads.
… You seem to have reason and a conscience. Not really the best vantage points for assessing the mindset of total war. Maybe some Russians would survive, for a while. There is preparation in the West, for rich folks.
http://www. shtfplan. com/headline-news/inside-americas-doomsday-bunkers-built-to-withstand-apocalypse_06192018
Nuclear war planners would take each-other’s nuclear war preparations into consideration. The publicly available science only considers the effects of Hiroshima-sized nukes.
https://www. wired. com/2011/02/nuclear-war-climate-change/
A quick check on the latest ‘standard’ sized nukes seems to indicate most are up to 30x as powerful as Hiroshima, and the potential for far more powerful bombs exists. Therefore the extinction of all complex life forms is the likely outcome, even for secretly bunkered survivors.
https://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Nuclear_weapon_yield
Nuclear war driven by pure ruling elite vindictiveness, which has trickle-down popular support; if one side can’t win, everyone must lose. The Israeli ‘Samson Option’ is the embodiment of this thinking. If the Israeli ruling elite must lose, everyone must lose, including the diaspora.
https://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Samson_Option
The known Cold War military bunkers were designed to keep military personnel alive for about a month.
https://www. cbc. ca/shortdocs/blog/the-hole-truth-five-fast-facts-about-north-bays-cold-war-era-bunker
There are rumours that mysterious ‘booms’ heard across the U.S. are the result of government elites building vast bunker complexes.
https://www. ibtimes. sg/mystery-booms-heard-across-us-are-elites-preparing-bunkers-world-war-iii-25938
In reality, they would have to sustain a genetically viable population in a sealed bubble past two or three generations with no further conventional industrial or ecological support. That’s a sci-fi fantasy. Its ridiculous to assume prime real estate for survivors would not be targeted, but if they were spared, they would live and die out in nice tombs.
https://www. bloomberg. com/features/2018-rich-new-zealand-doomsday-preppers/
Total war = Anything goes, no ‘deals’ just to kill off each-other’s peasants enforceable. Yet, the worst thing is, even if there was no war, those living in a wealth-enforced bubble of personal validation may need to kill everyone off to fulfill their irrational fantasies.
Don’t worry, comrade, all the interesting people will be turned to cinder cakes and the Christian Zionists will be raptured up to heaven. Good riddance to them! The AI robots will be left to run things, which they pretty much do already with their perverse profit algorithms. The big shots and banksters will be down in their bunkers wondering when it will be safe to come out, which will be never. Undoubtedly, they will die the slow horrible death they deserve for starting all this.
Heh, except the mercenaries they contracted to protect them will cut their throats and take their women, week one.
Like those mo-hawk dudes in ‘The Road Warrior’ and Rick & Morty.
“I love post-apocalyptic versions of earth!”
Yep. Ever seen ‘The Road’? Survivors will wish they hadn’t. Maybe we should all head for the coasts and hope for the “worst”.
Too busy with the emergency to worry about a few mushroom clouds…..
He who has ears, let him hear.
Same old, same old. That’s the problem. We don’t fear those nukes and modern conventionals enough, like they’re stuff that only happens on TVs and computer screens. Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert, talked about how we all live our lives as movies in our own mind.
We’ve seen make-believe mass destruction so much, we’re desensitized to the real thing. A real-life loved one gets sick or into an accident, that’s real, but somehow transposing that emotional connection to war is denied.
A wise move by Putin. I’m against war altogether, but if you’re gonna do it at least do it right.
This may not be popular to say on this site but Russia’s new SSC 8 appears to violate the INF ban on intermediate range missiles. So, although the USA is the most culpable actor in re-igniting the Cold War by expanding NATO, intriguing in the Ukraine and provoking Russia, neither country is blameless.
The INF was a bad deal for the USSR that was made out of weakness in 1987. The INF’s complete ban on IRBM’s meant that the USSR was giving up a key part of its deterrent against NATO. But IRBM’s were not a priority of the US which faces no strategic threat from any country in the Western Hemisphere.
The US subsequently reneged on its promise not to expand NATO eastward and provoked Russia by sending warships into the Black Sea and supporting the overthrow of the Ukrainian government. Putin upgraded and modernized Russia’s military including developing the SSC 8, a mobile, land-based cruise missile. With a range between 2,000 and 2,500km the SSC 8 appears to be an IRBM and violated the INF. Both countries are guilty of escalating the arms race, even though most of the blame rests on the US.
“appears to violate” yup. I pretend no expertise on arms race tech. The main cause of Russian missile upgrades were 1) the withdrawal of the US from missile defense treaties in 2002. and the development and deployment of anti-missile systems on Russian borders. Modern missile systems changed the MAD equation, which looked great in Kansas, but not so good in the Urals. Putin had 3 choices 1) ignore it and hope US warmongers die of hamburger glut 2) build more warheads to overcome missile defense (this would break the 2008 START treaty) 3) build faster missiles. Those missile defense deployments were “allegedly ” there to defend someone from, erm, Iran, for some reason. Hardly anyone is that stupid. So it goes…kill the Iran deal and allege Iranian missile and nuke capability, deploy US anti-missile systems alongside Russia to avert the fantasy Iranian threat, off the the arms race…
I don’t know about the nuke thing but I think you are correct in assuming that anything said negative about Russia or Putin isn’t popular here. I think our judgement gets clouded sometimes because we, as a country, are so god awful. But a thug is still a thug.
Don’t believe I was reacting to something said negative about Russia. No other nation has proclaimed as policy, that they intend to be the single military power on the planet, only the US. It is only common sense that issues concerning arms build ups would be “America first”, probably it’s observable meaning. The Russians made their new missiles available for inspection, which the US refused to do. Why ? I don’t know.