And, certainly on paper at least, I agree that the US policy on nuclear weapon use is more aggressive. However, just like Putin has to play for the masses, so do American politicians, and giving lip talk to deifying "the American way," is a big part of that.

I think what we (the bigger we, both the US and Russia) have going for us is that several decades of near armageddon resulted in a lot of procedures in place to stop it from happening.

For example, there apparently are deescalation lines of communication open. They were used to tell Russia that an attack was about to happen, and they needed to get their planes out of the air.

After the attack, communication was still taking place.

People in command are fully aware what would happen if nukes started flying. They're more invested in it never happening then the average citizen. I think the fly in the ointment here could be Trump, because as much as he is adored around here, the man has an ego. And a belief that he can just will his desires into existence.

I can absolutely see him not listening to advisors and generals because he personally believes that the worst won't really happen.

When it comes to nuclear weapons, I'm much more concerned about Kim losing his shit, or an India/Pakistan conflict gone wrong.

Edit - Just to add on, the US had it's moment to test their willingness to use nukes.

When China pushed Patton out of North Korea, he vehemently advocated for the use of nuclear weapons on Chinese forces. He was soon after relieved of duty, despite being one of the biggest names to come out of WW2.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/16/2018 12:16PM by Dalbrin.