Russia moves to "Nuke first, ask later" policy

[Fireblade]

Bye Marcin, szia Tamas

[Sahib]

WE WILL BURY YOU

[Kleves]

What's the point of adopting rules that have zero chance of being acted upon, except to erode your credibility?

Russia would never dare use its nuclear weapons, lest it provoke an overwhelming apology from Obama.

[The Brain]

  Obama is keeping a finger on the Button night and day.

[grumbler]

What's the point of adopting rules that have zero chance of being acted upon, except to erode your credibility?

They have nuclear credibility to erode? 

[Ideologue]

They could probably still fuck up China, probably not to the point that a countervalue response would not be devastating, however.

At any rate, tactical use of nuclear weapons is nothing to get too worked up about, even if they were serious, which they're not.

[CountDeMoney]

At any rate, tactical use of nuclear weapons is nothing to get too worked up about

Exactly.  But while we possess FAEs of greater yield, they don't have the political stigma attached to them.

[Agelastus]

At any rate, tactical use of nuclear weapons is nothing to get too worked up about

Exactly.  But while we possess FAEs of greater yield, they don't have the political stigma attached to them.

And if I recall correctly, have not the Russians stated that they can and have made a larger and more destructive bomb of this type than the USA? I don't see why they would need to risk the opprobrium attached to the use of nuclear weapons given they have this capability.

[C.C.R.]

Maybe I'm naive, but my reading between the lines of this led to me believing that the Russians would be more likely to point these things South rather than West...

[DontSayBanana]

Maybe I'm naive, but my reading between the lines of this led to me believing that the Russians would be more likely to point these things South rather than West...

I asked if they were trying to start another cold war; I didn't say with whom.  NK and Iran are developing nukes (I don't care how innocent they say they're being with it- I believe the temptation to build that powerful a weapon as a symbolic gesture is just too great for a government to pass up), and as long as Pakistan can't keep Al Qaeda and the Taliban under control, there's a possibility those nukes could end up in play as well.

Concerned?  Hell yes, but not for the immediate strategic threat to the US; concerned we'll have another "chain reaction" ala World War 2, where those countries all start bringing their buddies in to do the fighting.

[MadImmortalMan]

What's the point of adopting rules that have zero chance of being acted upon, except to erode your credibility?

Their secret mineshaft auto-pilot nuke doomsday device was leaked to the public, so they had to do something.

[Darth Wagtaros]

Didn't the US decide a few years back we'd consider using nukes for some hard tagetS?

We decided prior to Gulf War 1 that any use of non-conventional weapons (chemical, biological) of mass destruction would warrant a nuclear response.
But yes, there was talk that, in the event it was required, tactical nuclear weapons could be used on hard targets if the yield would be more effective than conventional warheads.

Yes. That was being talked about only a few years ago during stuff like Anaconder or Saddam hunting.  Cracking open those caves was thought to be easier with some tactical nukes.

[Martinus]

What's the point of adopting rules that have zero chance of being acted upon, except to erode your credibility?

Russia would never dare use its nuclear weapons, lest it provoke an overwhelming apology from Obama.

Funny how you guys kept making fun about Europe being all pussies sending strongly worded letters etc., and then elected a President to do just the same.

[Berkut]

What's the point of adopting rules that have zero chance of being acted upon, except to erode your credibility?

Russia would never dare use its nuclear weapons, lest it provoke an overwhelming apology from Obama.

Funny how you guys kept making fun about Europe being all pussies sending strongly worded letters etc., and then elected a President to do just the same.

NOT FUNNY AT ALL.

[Valmy]

Funny how you guys kept making fun about Europe being all pussies sending strongly worded letters etc., and then elected a President to do just the same.

It looked like a good way to go.  The actual doing something while everybody else sat on their hands and insulted us from the sidelines was getting tiresome.  This is more fun.