• eldavi@lemmy.ml
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    8 days ago

    assuming that this doesn’t lead to world war 3: i wonder if this will prod the russians into developing weaponry whose capability fits between nuclear icbm’s and short range defense like the west has.

    • darkcalling@lemmygrad.ml
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      8 days ago

      They already have them and just demo’ed it in the Oreshnik which is an intermediate range hypersonic missile formerly banned by a treaty against IRM the US under Trump pulled out of. Those missiles can hit all of Europe, are capable of carrying nuclear or conventional warheads but are not in the same class or range as truly global ICBM missiles.

      So they have them, they’re putting them into further production and if the west doesn’t stop provoking them they’ll likely hit the west with them at which point the west can either be reasonable and back down or continue their petulant child tantrum of claiming Russia is the aggressor and that Russia is the one escalating at which point we could see nuclear war.

      All I can say is I hope Russia doesn’t let them salami slice things much further. The west is convinced they can play chicken with them, that they can salami-slice their way into doing everything right up to using nuclear weapons and get away without a Russian response against them directly and I worry what that means in terms of emboldening the west to escalate and attempt to stop the conflict on their terms which either means a loss for the multi-polar order and Russia or the possibility of nuclear war. Anything that pre-empts that, disrupts the cycle of arrogant escalation without fear by the west would be good. The question is, is there anything that can be done other than capitulation? How to thread this needle.

      As has been pointed out. If Russia did the same thing to the US that the US is doing to Russia. Like if it gave Mexican cartels Kinzals and they used them and killed US civilians and blew up part of a naval base or something. The US wouldn’t be like “aw shucks, those cartels need to be taught a lesson”. They’d hit them back but then immediately after they’d hit Russia back directly for attacking them and tell Russia they’ll be in a war if they don’t stop immediately.

      The Pentagon is also cryptically stating they could use nuclear weapons in a first strike if they can get the drop on Russia. These maniacs are trying to end the world rather than lose a conflict which will lead to a blow to their image and destroy their hegemony. I still hold out hope that for many of them this is just Nixon’s madman theory being played out and they won’t really let the world be destroyed and will at the last moment back down will crying and playing the victim all the while.