Daniel, I am sure you remember the "Better Dead than Red" of the mid 20th Century, when the Russian nuclear threat was at it's height, and we countered with Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD)
I've been thinking of that, as we are surrounded, inside the country, with surrender monkey's, and some, maybe most in Government. They sure do inluence Biden, because Putin was obliguely threatening such, causing Biden to hold up supply Ukraine with F=16's and Long range artillery. (And look what that decision as wrought, more destruction of Ukraine and the possibility of a total collapse
Will Shakespeare said "A coward dies a thousand times, before his death".
The Red scare of the 20's to Gorbachev, scared the Plutocrats, the elite, and via their control of the means of communication (the media) that made us afraid, they literally projected their fears into the minds of the public and made us afraid as well.
Communism like Capitalism are economic theories, not political, both work in any political system be it democratic or authoritarian.
The USSR was authoritarian as is Russia today under Putin, and much the same thing is going on, a cozy relationship between Church and state. Under Stalin and successors, the Russian Orthodox Church had a cozy relationship with the Kremlin, via the KGB, whose priests were members and relayed confessions to the KGB there is no doubt in my military mind that they same thing is happening today.
Russia was authoritarian then, it is authoritarian today..
Putin as Hitler was, is so identified with the state that he created that I believe he would self immolate rather than go down.
Question is will his lieutenants join in an act of suicide. I doubt it.
There is a question of the ability of Russian nuclear weapons and ICBM. even being able to work. They aren't like artillery shells, you can store until it is time to use them. And even brass ammunition weakens, corrodes over time, as I found out firing some Korean war M1 Carbine ammunition.
Nuclear warheads and missiles require constant maintance and parts replacements, and it is expensive and requires well trained personnel and a supply chain.
Nuclear weapons are often thought about in terms of uranium and plutonium—i.e., the key components in nuclear weapons. However, these weapons also feature over 100 components that use non-nuclear explosive materials, some of them highly specialized and difficult to produce.
Then there are the plutonium pits, which also degrade over time, and since the end of the cold war, we lost the ability to build more,and are trying to ramp up
And if we have a problem it is 1000 times worse in Russia, with all of their graft and incompetence and poorly trained soldiers and "experts"
Putin is bluffing because he, and every tin horn dictator in the world knows that Americans will shiver and shake and wet their pants and foul their underwear when threatened with nuke.s
I don't think it is a matter of better dead than red or vice versa. Putin may have nothing to lose, but he doesn't have his hands on all of the missile triggers, under ground and under ocean, and it is question of whether they will explode in their silos or subs and if they will even function, after 50 years of dissuse,
Everything mechanical uses gaskets, seals, lubricants of some sort, and after 50 years of disuse they dry out and either don't work or malfunction.
Store a car in a barn for even 20 years, go in and crank it up, first you will have to replace the battery, and if it does crank, the oil has turned to sludge, all of the seals and gaskets have dried out. It might start and run but only for a little while.
The threat of nuclear war is an excuse for doing nothing or surrendering.
Right.
Daniel, I am sure you remember the "Better Dead than Red" of the mid 20th Century, when the Russian nuclear threat was at it's height, and we countered with Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD)
I've been thinking of that, as we are surrounded, inside the country, with surrender monkey's, and some, maybe most in Government. They sure do inluence Biden, because Putin was obliguely threatening such, causing Biden to hold up supply Ukraine with F=16's and Long range artillery. (And look what that decision as wrought, more destruction of Ukraine and the possibility of a total collapse
Will Shakespeare said "A coward dies a thousand times, before his death".
The Red scare of the 20's to Gorbachev, scared the Plutocrats, the elite, and via their control of the means of communication (the media) that made us afraid, they literally projected their fears into the minds of the public and made us afraid as well.
Communism like Capitalism are economic theories, not political, both work in any political system be it democratic or authoritarian.
The USSR was authoritarian as is Russia today under Putin, and much the same thing is going on, a cozy relationship between Church and state. Under Stalin and successors, the Russian Orthodox Church had a cozy relationship with the Kremlin, via the KGB, whose priests were members and relayed confessions to the KGB there is no doubt in my military mind that they same thing is happening today.
Russia was authoritarian then, it is authoritarian today..
Putin as Hitler was, is so identified with the state that he created that I believe he would self immolate rather than go down.
Question is will his lieutenants join in an act of suicide. I doubt it.
There is a question of the ability of Russian nuclear weapons and ICBM. even being able to work. They aren't like artillery shells, you can store until it is time to use them. And even brass ammunition weakens, corrodes over time, as I found out firing some Korean war M1 Carbine ammunition.
Nuclear warheads and missiles require constant maintance and parts replacements, and it is expensive and requires well trained personnel and a supply chain.
Nuclear weapons are often thought about in terms of uranium and plutonium—i.e., the key components in nuclear weapons. However, these weapons also feature over 100 components that use non-nuclear explosive materials, some of them highly specialized and difficult to produce.
https://www.gao.gov/blog/2019/10/31/creating-explosives-for-nuclear-weapons
Then there are the plutonium pits, which also degrade over time, and since the end of the cold war, we lost the ability to build more,and are trying to ramp up
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/nov/26/us-nuclear-arsenal-plutonium-pits#:~:text=Meanwhile%2C%202%2C000%20miles%20away%2C%20at,that%20are%20a%20vital%20component
And if we have a problem it is 1000 times worse in Russia, with all of their graft and incompetence and poorly trained soldiers and "experts"
Putin is bluffing because he, and every tin horn dictator in the world knows that Americans will shiver and shake and wet their pants and foul their underwear when threatened with nuke.s
I don't think it is a matter of better dead than red or vice versa. Putin may have nothing to lose, but he doesn't have his hands on all of the missile triggers, under ground and under ocean, and it is question of whether they will explode in their silos or subs and if they will even function, after 50 years of dissuse,
Everything mechanical uses gaskets, seals, lubricants of some sort, and after 50 years of disuse they dry out and either don't work or malfunction.
Store a car in a barn for even 20 years, go in and crank it up, first you will have to replace the battery, and if it does crank, the oil has turned to sludge, all of the seals and gaskets have dried out. It might start and run but only for a little while.
The threat of nuclear war is an excuse for doing nothing or surrendering.