I’m irritated by the loose talk of nuclear war these days. People talk nonchalantly, too nonchalantly about it.
Growing up in the cold war I experienced the constant hysteria and the doomsday scenarios. That hysteria surely wasn’t healthy but neither is it healthy when people talk today about nuclear war as if it is a game of cricket. Many of these morons who talk this way have no clue what nuclear war means. I suspect that this is what happens when one becomes too detached from reality and when one lives too much in the virtual reality of computer games.
To understand what even a small tactical nuke means, let’s look at the following example.
This photo was taken after the explosion of about 4,500 tons of ammonium nitrate fertilizer at a chemical plant in Oppau, Germany on September 21, 1921.
The explosion was massive. It left a crater 90 by 125 meters and 19 meters deep, killed 500 to 600 people and left 2,000 injured.
Within a radius of 25 kilometers roofs were ripped off. 30 kilometers away windows had bursted and the explosion could be heared more than 300 kilometers away.
The explosion was equivalent to 1 to 2 kilotonnes of TNT.
In other words: the explosion was the equivalent to the detonation of a small tactical nuclear weapon.
Rest assured that the death toll of 600 people would have been much, much higher if the explosion had happened in a more densely populated area.
Now, imagine the destruction, the horror and the carnage of even the smallest of these weapons.
To those who put these funny Ukranian flags on their social media profile and who hysterically call for more escalation and more involvement in Ukraine:
Is the question of whether corrupt Ukrainian oligarchs or corrupt Russian oligarchs rule some areas of Ukraine of such importance for you that you would subject the Ukranian population, NATO troops or, worst case, your neighbours and countrymen to the horrors of nuclear war?
Artaxes' brainbench 
Do you really think Trump would have made any difference? Think about it, Trump and Putin were friendly, Trump even pulled the pin on Ukraine’s financial aid and withdrew the US from NATO, therefore maybe Trump would have supported Putin against NATO. The threat of nuclear weapons would have been used by Putin regardless and I doubt Putin would shake in his boots if his friend Trump or anybody else was the US President. To make such a unqualified statement about Biden due to him simply being a Democrat is patently obvious and I think unfair even if he is not performing as well as you wish.
“Do you really think Trump would have made any difference?”
No need to speculate. Putin DID NOT INVADE when Trump was president. That’s fact.
” Trump … withdrew the US from NATO”
That’s simply a lie.Trump never, ever withdrew the US from NATO. During all of Trumps presidency the US remained and it still is a NATO member..
As I’ve said once. It’s no fun talking to stupid people.
That’s why I don’t bother to address the rest of your nonsense.
Ok I was supposed to have answered Tom’s comments, but I was wrong I admit that is my fault in not checking it out. Trump did not withdraw from NATO, however he caused much concern for his statements including his own advisors and if he had still been president may have gone through with it. Putin I would expect waited for the results of the US election to see if it would happen because he was always going to invade considering he had already moved on Donbas. Speculation I agree however no worse than Toms speculative statements. Regardless, Trump was very friendly with Putin and that is also a fact.
You admit that Trump did not withdraw from NATO. That’s great but why did you make that claim in the first place?
Were you simply misinformed or did you knowingly spread a falsehood?
A smart man would reflect for a minute and ask himself if his other assumptions may be also wrong.
The idiot just goes on as if nothing happened.
The only thing worse than talking with a stupid person is talking with a stupid person who just makes things up and who doesn’t care about the truth.
The basic headache is that we cannot let the mere threat of using nuclear weapons sway our foreign policy.
The problem here is that Biden is an awful president. With Trump in office, Putin would not have invaded Ukraine because he knew there would be consequences. The only reason Biden is doing anything is that the Ukrainians did not leave him much choice. They have fought back with sufficient intensity that other countries have been embarrassed into helping them.
Unfortunately, we now have a dictator who realizes he has a tiger by the tail. If he does not win in Ukraine, he fears he will look weak. When a dictator looks weak, that is a death sentence. That makes Putin dangerous the way a cornered rat is dangerous, a cornered rat with nukes.