World News

22168 readers

2 users here now

Breaking news from around the world.

News that is American but has an international facet may also be posted here.

Guidelines for submissions:

Where possible, post the original source of information.
- If there is a paywall, you can use alternative sources or provide an archive.today, 12ft.io, etc. link in the body.
Do not editorialize titles. Preserve the original title when possible; edits for clarity are fine.
Do not post ragebait or shock stories. These will be removed.
Do not post tabloid or blogspam stories. These will be removed.
Social media should be a source of last resort.

These guidelines will be enforced on a know-it-when-I-see-it basis.

For US News, see the US News community.

This community's icon was made by Aaron Schneider, under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.

founded 3 years ago

MODERATORS

China may have stopped Putin from using nuclear weapons, Blinken says (kyivindependent.com)

submitted 1 month ago by schizoidman@lemm.ee to c/news

17 comments fedilink hide all child comments

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/51645406

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] Radiant_sir_radiant 6 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I'm very glad that nothing important depends on my opinion on this and I can freely theoretize and rant, but I doubt Putin would use nukes so easily. At his core he's still a coward, and he has to know that the 'West' couldn't afford to not react to Russia nuking a European country.

Having said that, even if the threat of Russia using nukes were very real, it shouldn't weaken our resolve to support Ukraine and put a stop to Russia's aggression. Because no matter the circumstances, people like Putin cannot be allowed to have any way of forcing the world to stand back and let them commit crimes at will.
Throughout history, appeasement has never worked in anybody's favour except the aggressor's. If it turns out that a nuclear retaliatory strike in response to a Russian nuclear attack on another country really is what it takes to stop Putin, then so be it. It can't be worse in the long term than letting him just take whatever he wants. In that case I just wish we could get this over with already.

[–] anachronist@midwest.social 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

During the Cuban missile crisis Kennedy asked about using a tactical nuke against Cuba.

Kennedy's generals explained that the only possible options would be enormous first strike against the USSR, or nothing. Because if the US used a tactical nuke Khrushchev would be forced to respond. Then you'd have a nuclear exchange between superpowers anyway, but would also be giving the enemy time to react.

[–] Radiant_sir_radiant 1 points 1 month ago

Yes, I'm aware of that. I just hope Vladimir is, too. At any rate he cannot be allowed to hold the whole world* hostage by playing chicken with unsubstantiated threats. The sooner he is stopped the better.

(* Except for China and his other buddies he's scared of, of course. Which is somewhat ironic, considering how young Communist China used to be such a fan of the USSR, which in turn treated its poor and underdeveloped neighbour with so thinly veiled contempt. How the tables have turned...)