"is sabre rattling not the entire purpose of nuclear weapons?" paragon of didact #18
At this stage that might seem the sum total of a superpower nuclear arsenal utility. The obvious historic exception may be Japan in WWII, Hiroshima, Nagasaki.
You know that of course. I don't mean to suggest I'm enlightening you here about that. Instead I'm trying to follow your line of reasoning to see where it leads, where it logically concludes.
You're right of course, MIRV ICBM first use may effectively terminate the human race. "The meek shall inherit the Earth." Mold & cockroaches?
You've cast our gaze to Putin / Moscow / Kremlin. Perhaps this may cast some light:
Moscow (CNN) In a televised national address Wednesday morning, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a partial mobilization. This means that he has essentially broken an unwritten social contract with Russians: we, the citizens, allow you, the authorities, to steal and fight, but in exchange you stay out of our private lives.
Beginning a new phase of the war, the cornered Putin is dragging a significant portion of Russians behind him. He has de facto declared war on the domestic front -- not only on the opposition and civil society, but on the male population of Russia.
Why is Putin taking the risk? Because he himself has encouraged the lack of public attention to the war for several months. Mobilization is fraught with serious discontent in society. That is precisely why he decided to make a partial mobilization, rather than a full one. In the long run, he laid a mine under his regime; in the short run, he will face sabotage.
For so long, Putin fostered a disinclination among the masses for war, a disinclination that will now cost the Russians, who are being turned into cannon fodder. *
In a televised national address Wednesday morning, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a partial mobilization. This means that he has essentially broken an unwritten social contract with Russians: we, the citizens, allow you, the authorities, to steal and fight, but in exchange you stay...
www.cnn.com
Putin has dug himself in deep here. Putin got himself into this. Can he get himself out? Without blowing up / nuking Berlin, DC, London, NYC, Paris, etc.? Are we to be foolish enough to believe once Putin is cornered, has zero path to victory, that he will be so humanitarian that he's exit peacefully, without vengeance?
* Editor's note:
Andrei Kolesnikov is a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He is the author of several books on the political and social history of Russia, including
"Five Five-Year Liberal Reforms." Origins of Russian Modernization and Egor Gaidar's Legacy." The views expressed in this commentary are his own. Read more
opinion articles on CNN.