What if Putin lets the nuclear genie out of the bottle?

[Mountain Man]

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[Stoic]

I'm not convinced he actually will. However, I do not want to discuss whether he will or will not in this thread.

Instead. I want to discuss what happens if he does.

Let's say Putin decides to use a tactical Nuke. The cold-war is over, and political calculations have changed. Make no mistake, it's use will shock the entire world, and be met with near unanimous condemnation. But the debate will be: How does the world respond? The nuclear genie has been kept in its bottle under the threat of MAD. Essentially the argument that if you use this weapon, it will be used against you, and both sides will be wiped out in nuclear war.

What happens? On one hand, "MAD" would dictate that we launch nukes against something in Russia as reprisal to their use of Nukes. This of course raises the risk of nuclear war, and all the horrible repercussions that come with it. On the other hand, NATO and the US could take a lesser reprisal. But this carries the large risk of "normalizing" the use of nuclear weapons. At the bare minimum, it means that using a nuclear weapon no longer means you face being wiped out, which could lead to them being used more frequently, which itself could be a longer/slower road to the same place.

What are your thoughts?

I'd have to say the most likely result would be the continuing use of nuclear weapons until at least civilization was destroyed, if not all of humanity.

I suppose there is a chance that the rest of the world could unite against Russia and, with the threat of nuclear annihilation perhaps along with conventional warfare, force a change in government, disarmament, reparations, and punishment of whomever was responsible. The probability of that being pulled off successfully seems awfully low, though.

[shunyadragon]

I'm not convinced he actually will. However, I do not want to discuss whether he will or will not in this thread.

Instead. I want to discuss what happens if he does.

Let's say Putin decides to use a tactical Nuke. The cold-war is over, and political calculations have changed. Make no mistake, it's use will shock the entire world, and be met with near unanimous condemnation. But the debate will be: How does the world respond? The nuclear genie has been kept in its bottle under the threat of MAD. Essentially the argument that if you use this weapon, it will be used against you, and both sides will be wiped out in nuclear war.

What happens? On one hand, "MAD" would dictate that we launch nukes against something in Russia as reprisal to their use of Nukes. This of course raises the risk of nuclear war, and all the horrible repercussions that come with it. On the other hand, NATO and the US could take a lesser reprisal. But this carries the large risk of "normalizing" the use of nuclear weapons. At the bare minimum, it means that using a nuclear weapon no longer means you face being wiped out, which could lead to them being used more frequently, which itself could be a longer/slower road to the same place.

What are your thoughts?

He would have Trumps approval believing he is 'savvy and smart.'

[CivilDiscourse]

He would have Trumps approval believing he is 'savvy and smart.'

This thread is not about Trump. If you don't like that, got to another thread, but don't post garbage in this one.

[Sparko]

I think at the very least it would set off a full scale land war with the US and the rest of Europe attacking Russia in Ukraine and into Russia. That could set off more use of nukes.

Someone mentioned Star Wars. I too wonder about that. The smart thing would be to have X-Ray lasers in orbit that could shoot down any ICBMs Russia might launch if it escalates. If we do have those, we wouldn't announce it. There were a lot of secret DOD shuttle launches in the day. Who knows what was on them.

I wonder what China's reaction would be if Russia used a nuke?

[CivilDiscourse]

I think at the very least it would set off a full scale land war with the US and the rest of Europe attacking Russia in Ukraine and into Russia. That could set off more use of nukes.

Someone mentioned Star Wars. I too wonder about that. The smart thing would be to have X-Ray lasers in orbit that could shoot down any ICBMs Russia might launch if it escalates. If we do have those, we wouldn't announce it. There were a lot of secret DOD shuttle launches in the day. Who knows what was on them.

I wonder what China's reaction would be if Russia used a nuke?

Honestly? I'm going to guess that left-over "star wars" stuff probably isn't effective. It's only been in the last decade or so that we've been able to create lasers with enough power to down missiles and such. And we've been showing that off to the world as a show of force. Even that stuff requires enormous power and chemical tanks to use.

[Sparko]

Honestly? I'm going to guess that left-over "star wars" stuff probably isn't effective. It's only been in the last decade or so that we've been able to create lasers with enough power to down missiles and such. And we've been showing that off to the world as a show of force. Even that stuff requires enormous power and chemical tanks to use.

I have no idea. They could have something else, maybe even ground based. I sure hope so.

[rogue06]

I have no idea. They could have something else, maybe even ground based. I sure hope so.

Our efforts to keep up with Russia and China's super-sonic missiles has not been going well.