WW3 Please SAY NO!

[jgannon]

Originally Posted by Mark17

And Russia hasn't attacked a NATO country, and no NATO country has invaded Russia. NATO has helped keep the peace to everyones' benefit (besides Putin's expansionist desires that is.)



To remain prepared, as a deterrent, obviously. Why does Russia's army conduct exercises, missile tests, etc. if they are not a threat? And what's with "If, as you say...?" Are you uncertain regarding NATO's defensive charter?



According to Wiki, the USSR has the most nuclear warheads in the world, 700 more than the USA:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...more%20rows%20

When Russia has more weapons already, and when they either don't comply with treaties or make verification difficult if not impossible, what good are treaties?



Don't you think some of Russia's 1,456 deployed nuclear warheads are pointed towards Poland, Romania, and all other NATO countries?

You sure do have a one-sided view of things.

1) Russia hasn't attacked a NATO country, but that doesn't mean it was comfortable with further encirclement by NATO. Ukraine brought about the very thing it hoped to avoid, as did the U.S. and NATO. I'm still not saying Putin should have invaded. They felt threatened by further encirclement.

2) They conducted them from what I understand as a warning to Ukraine and potential NATO membership.

3 and 4) Both the Russia and the U.S have the most nuclear weapons, with Russia yes, having more. The idea of detente back in the 70s and 80s was to pull back from the potential nuclear abyss. Our leaders at that time seemingly had a full understanding of mutually assured destruction, and signed these treaties and eliminated stockpiles. The U.S. has been thumbing it's nose at this concept for 30 years first taking advantage of Russia's weakened position after the Soviet Union broke up, and continuing on a bellicose path after 9/11 in general, and increasingly toward Russia specifically after Maidan and Trumps election. The United States actually has NO MORAL GROUND to tell anyone not to invade anyone else anyway. See: Iraq, Afghanistan (who did not attack us on 9/11), Libya, and Yemen.