Ukraine

Interesting point:

The Über-Hawks are always yammering on about "an unused weapon is a useless weapon", and we're left wondering if these idiots would actually start shooting nukes if they get the chance. Or is it bluff-n-bluster?

While we can't completely dismiss the probability that some asshole will star some shit that gets us all blown up - there's always some fuckin' lunatic who might do it - the probability is pretty well known to be very low.

Defense contractors and the people at the Pentagon who spend all our money on astoundingly impressive conventional weapons, seem eager to justify the time and money and effort that get poured into these things, so they're always looking for an opportunity to test it all out in a real shooting war.

So OK. I think that sucks the big green weenie, and I'll always work to make it different, but OK.

Nukes are a different story. Conventional shit works if you can prove it works, but nukes don't work if you follow that logic.

The value of having nuclear weapons lies in having them - not in actually using them on someone.

You don't even have to admit you've got them (Israel). If people believe you've got them, then you've got the deterrent.

And there it is. Deterrence is the name of the game. And again, it sucks, but OK - as long as it keeps working that way, and as long as the lunatics are kept away from the launch button.

August 2016: ...a foreign policy expert on the international level went to advise Donald Trump, and three times Trump asked about the use of nuclear weapons. Three times. At one point, he asked if we had them why can’t we use them...

Feel better? Me neither.

But ...

Ben Hodges - Lt General, USArmy, Ret.

Washing away our mistakes with Ukrainian blood.