@lurkerhasarisen Maybe so in the military chain of command, but the Executive Branch, MSM, and broad civilian public opinion appear to be stuck in a weird hybrid of thinking Russia is evil and imperialistic like the the 50s-70s, and simultaneously broke and powerless like the '90s. Thus, we MUST defeat them before they take over the world, and also they're one step away from collapsing into bankruptcy and irrelevance.

You say Russia is far behind in military technology, but they appear to be ahead of the West in the areas of drone warfare and Mach 10 hypersonic missiles for which no countermeasures exist. I see them as also having built up their capacity for manufacturing ammunition, while America appears to be scraping the bottom of the barrel for reserves to send to Ukraine and Israel, while our defense contractors are set up to make money disappear rather than build or maintain surge capacity to make new ammunition appear.

America was the party who opted out of the no first nuclear strike doctrine, and we're stupid for pushing and pushing against Russia on the foolish assumption that they would never...

@lurkerhasarisen

Everybody knows that the Russkies aren’t going to start lobbing nukes

Tick Tock, the Nuclear Armageddon clock gets another second closer to midnight. The Poles and French are saber rattling and chest puffing about sending troops into Ukraine, presumably because they expect NATO to have their back if they go in unilaterally and start getting their asses kicked.

The thing about that is, now Putin's fears that NATO is determined to attack Russia now become validated, and things like air bases and command and control centers in those countries become legitimate military targets. If these countries attack targets within Russia, its nuclear protocol gets invoked.

"The West" has gotten just about everything wrong about Russia's ability to mobilize and maintain an army and survive under sanctions. Not just a little wrong, but extremely fucking wrong. We'd take a casual "They'd never use nukes" attitude at our (and all of life on Earth's) peril.

The Preacher's Wife wanted to make a special Easter dinner, so she asked the butcher what cuts of meat he had. "You're in luck... we just got in a new product; it's called Damn Ham."

She gets offended and says "You KNOW I'm the preacher's wife. How could you say that to me?"

"No, really, it's called Damn Ham! Look at the label. It's the tastiest ham I've had in 30 years of butchering!"

"Okay, I'll try it!" She spends the day cooking and when her husband comes home he gives her a kiss and asks, "What are you cooking that smells so good."

"It's Damn Ham."

"DAMN HAM?!? How could you say that, and on Easter?"

"No, really honey, look at the package that's what it's actually called."

"OK, well it sure smells good."

They're seated at the table with their surly, defiant teenage son. Sure enough, the ham is the best they'd ever eaten. The Preacher clears his plate and wants more.

"Son, can you pass the Damn Ham?"

"Sure, pop. And pass me the fucking potatoes."