Summary
A Russian presidential plane from the Kremlin’s Rossiya Special Flight Squadron visited New York and Washington, D.C., in late December, sparking speculation amid tense U.S.-Russia relations.
Moscow claimed the flight carried rotating diplomats, but its timing raises questions about Trump’s potential dealings with Vladimir Putin.
Trump has promised to end the Ukraine war in a day, alarming NATO officials who fear a deal that could harm Kyiv and alter NATO’s eastern border dynamics.
The flight highlights ongoing diplomatic maneuvering ahead of Trump’s January 20 inauguration.
To be fair, it wouldn’t be the first time radioactive dust blanketed Europe because of Russia by indirect means. Small-yield tactical nukes would also be less of an issue and an escalatory stepping-stone that is textbook for Putin.
What I seem to think is that military strategists think in terms of cold calculus of sunk cost and numbers; so let’s play this out:
Russia drops one tactical nuke on Ukraine.
The world gasps and shudders in horror.
Trump looks the other way, promoting “America First” Isolationism in political expediency.
Russia says they’ll consider dropping more if not for the unilateral surrender of Ukraine.
Western European military advisors say, “Yes, radioactive fallout is going to cover parts of Europe, but one small-yield tactical nuke isn’t too bad. Maybe we can prevent further damage because if we were to respond by conventional or nuclear means against Russia, they will certainly be able to deploy a sizable amount of their total nuclear arsenal and naturally the deaths from WW3 would be higher than some radioactive dust.”
This is how they think. It’s rational. But Putin knows this.
… This is why you give Ukraine, the actual active victim here just enough nuclear weapons to threaten Putin’s ivory towe on the eve of his political puppet entering the White House in the USA no less. It puts Putin in a bind and it safeguards Ukraine via M.A.D. Theory.
Because a desperate bully targets the weak and defenseless. Always has. None of those threats are as sizable as the nuclear threat, and giving Ukraine a proverbial “trump card” to level the playing-field in terms of risk to Putin himself is the only shot at injecting a dose of self-preservation in Putin’s mind. After all I hope we don’t tell our kids to not punch the bully back because hopefully a bystander will come to their aid eventually after the damage is already done.
Look at the end of the day, you are presented with two risks, and ask yourself which is more likely:
Personally, I’d much rather exchange more risk with Scenario 2 in order to further mitigate risk of Scenario 1.
So you’re playing out what you think military strategists believe? Can you show me the well-respected military strategists who support you in this?
Okay, come on man… You can either begin to sealion me or you can engage in good faith we can have a healthy discussion as adults. Since I’m putting quite a bit of effort in this conversation and not getting anything in return but denial — there really isn’t anything in this conversation for me unless something changes and quickly.
That is,
But hey, if you want to play that game I can play it, too:
Can you show me the well-respected military strategists who support you in this? Who think illogically and not in terms of risk and probability?
What in my scenario is actually unreasonable. Do you believe that is unreasonable, and if so, why?
Why do you believe M.A.D. theory would not hold up in this case and that the relative risk of Scenario 2 is greater than Scenario 1?
But sure, finally, I can give you an example: General LeMay and Robert McNamara responsible for the successful bombing of Japan, both by conventional and nuclear means. They employed risk calculus both in terms of their own bombers versus the relative risk to the opposition. This is pretty standard MO.
I am not going to play gish gallop with you and respond to dozens of points when you can’t respond to my single points without adding 15 more, but your “YOU show ME the expert YOU have” when I didn’t claim I was going with any military strategists at all shows you’re the one not discussing things in good faith here.
If you can’t back up a claim like that with evidence, don’t make the claim.
I’ll give you two responses then; one brief, one not so brief that explains my thought process for the closure of this discussion.
Let’s cut to the chase. In such discussions, we basically have 3 options:
You’re not venturing down a path that is convincing to me, and I’m apparently not convincing you with my strategy — either because (a) my transmission is poor, (b) reception is poor, or © I’m wrong and cannot see it. But unfortunately the arguments presented to me have not been compelling for me to see better logic.
Ultimately that you perceive me to be gish gallloping and I perceive you to be sealioning me means this discussion has been exhausted. I have no problem with healthy skepticism; but when you’re trying to deflect sound reasoning (at least uncontested) by requests of evidence that aren’t even necessary but rather proven by logic itself (what “reputable” military strategist DOESN’T use probability and proportionality in risk assessment!???), then that to me signals lazy posturing than it does healthy skepticism . You see the problem is you aren’t just remaining a neutral skeptic; you’re taking the opposite stance but not backing up your position in any remote way — neither with evidence, nor logic & reason I have at least done — that your position is the less risky of the two proposals.
So I suppose with that we leave it here and I’ll oblige you with the last word. Have a nice day.
I didn’t think you’d find anyone to back you up.