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Insulting History
"Victory is assured, I have no doubt about it."
Said Vladimir Putin this week, while speaking to factory workers in St. Petersburg, where he commemorated the 80th anniversary of a turning point in the siege of Leningrad.
That moment in history is meaningful for Putin, or at least it should be. His brother Viktor, just a year old, died during the siege in a children's home in 1942. He was buried in an unmarked grave. The younger Putin was born 10 years later, the only son to survive out of thre
“Nuclear powers have never lost major conflicts on which their fate depends.”
Says he, with a sample size of zero…
France lost territory that was part of metropolitan France in the Algerian War as a nuclear power.
Dmitry Peskov defended Medvedev’s remarks as “in full accordance” with the Kremlin’s nuclear doctrine which, Peskov helpfully reminded the world, “allows for a nuclear strike after aggression against the Russian Federation with conventional weapons when the very existence of the state is threatened.”
then we’re not going to see any nuclear strikes since no one, and certainly not Kyiv, threatens the existence of the Russian state… though he may think of nuking Putin? That guy seems like a real threat to the future of the Russian state…
The biggest threat to the Russian state is from Russians themselves https://cepa.org/article/wagner-victory-new-russian-civil-war-is-now-under-way/. I don’t see them nuking their own country but Putin is clearly living outside of reality.
From the leader and I had thought you would be citing Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf. “Victory is assured!”
When buying real estate, it is not only important to consider its proximity to military bases or other likely nuclear targets, but also important to consider prevailing winds. While you don’t have to be all that far from the point of impact to survive a nuclear blast, fallout (which is an actual physical thing like grains of incredibly radioactive sand, not a metaphor or a general term for radioactivity) can travel for tens of miles.
Unfortunately, I had to cross a very desirable city off my list of possible new locale contenders for precisely that reason.
Since it’s off the list, may I ask what city it was?
Personally, I think that Russia winning WW2 had some costs, and one is there has been no real housecleaning since 1945…I think we need to stand our ground, but the risks are very, very high…I wouldn’t invite Kissinger over for dinner, but he is very right that we’re not facing the risk….Complacency leads to instability, and letting Putin seize Crimea and wasting 20 years in Afghanistan followed by overnight collapse egged Putin on…So now, humiliation is a feature not a bug….Putin is the Toto Riina of the balance of power in Europe….
When I read “Henry Kissinger gently noted that, The destruction of Russia as a state….”, a chill went up my spine. Wrong again, Henry. If the Russian state (Putin) has been destroyed and internal conflict with outside intervention is the current state of affairs, the only nukes remaining in Russia will be the ones that misfired. I sincerely hope that no one is listening to this blood soaked fool.
WMD, interesting comment. I too have thought about the same thing. Sad to think, that here in the 21st century, we’re reliving the early 1960s.
BTW, Walt, don’t forget about the Yellowstone super volcano. That could cross a few more places off your list.
I wonder if triggers can be re-used. When the Minuteman is retired, move the pits to its replacement, etc.