The most complex and urgent issue facing humanity today

[alex330]

[BC]

Oh well...  can you describe in words what your points are?

[alex330]

It's a special Vice news report summarizing the events and onslaught of a new and potentially more dangerous Cold War between the US and Russia. Ukraine, the current military buildup of the Baltics, and the arms race are all discussed.

They interview top leaders on both sides.

The doomsday clock is once more at 3 minutes to midnight.

Vice covers global issues quite well and according to them this is the most pressing issue today. I feel they are one of the more unbiased news sources out there.

[Shadow]

Just a chess game that can be resolved at any time the big guys want to.
It makes for another focus point outside the Middle-East, and as Donald Trump is already nominated for the Nobel Peace award, it might earn him one...

[Gator]

Russia is not the threat.  MAD deters Russia and the West from starting thermonuclear war.  Mistakes happen, and such a war came close to starting during the Cuban missile crisis, yet at the critical moment a Soviet sub commander named Vasili Arkhipov prevented it. 

As long as Russia's economy is interconnected with the Western economy, I do not fear doomsday.  Such should also deter China. 

Greater threats are  crackpot regimes with nukes and missiles or terrorists obtaining nuclear weapons. 

[ML]

Gator, I don't think we can trust Russia to be as careful as they once were.

This nationalist fervor that is taking over Russia is at a higher level than before.

Many folks there are desperate to attain respect (as they see it) from the West, even if it means disaster for themselves.

[Gator]

Gator, I don't think we can trust Russia to be as careful as they once were.

This nationalist fervor that is taking over Russia is at a higher level than before.

Many folks there are desperate to attain respect (as they see it) from the West, even if it means disaster for themselves.

I agree that Russians would accept losing not a small number of young men in fighting a patriotic cause, yet to say they would accept the horror of thermonuclear war is preposterous. 

Russia is not ISIS.  They do not have the crazed fervor to sacrifice all for the sake of Russian patriotism.  If Russians were so bold they would accept that MH-17 was a result of Russian actions.  ISIS would be touting MH-17 if it shot it down.  Instead Russians deny it and blame others because it is too horrific.  They love their families, their lives, etc.  They appreciate materialism.  They will not commit mass suicide in fighting the West. 

[BC]

I agree that Russians would accept losing not a small number of young men in fighting a patriotic cause, yet to say they would accept the horror of thermonuclear war is preposterous. 

Russia is not ISIS. ilies, their lives, etc.  They appreciate materialism.  They will not commit mass suicide in fighting the West.

Indeed.  However.. a society that is in great discord has a tendency to seek a culprit.  Whether or not the 'culprit' is ISIS (however named) or Russia or whomever.. a culprit is sought and prosecuted.

[mendeleyev]

Gator, just after the Crimean annexation Mr. Putin vocalized a new war doctrine that included the use of limited (regional) nuclear defenses if Russian forces in the field were threatened by the West. That is now part of Russia's military order of battle. Last resort, to be sure. But Putin and his military staff seem to sincerely believe that a small scale defensive nuclear strategy to be feasible.

[BC]

Gator, just after the Crimean annexation Mr. Putin vocalized a new war doctrine that included the use of limited (regional) nuclear defenses if Russian forces in the field were threatened by the West. That is now part of Russia's military order of battle. Last resort, to be sure. But Putin and his military staff seem to sincerely believe that a small scale defensive nuclear strategy to be feasible.

that is 'upping the ante'.. by quite a bit..

[Gator]

Gator, just after the Crimean annexation Mr. Putin vocalized a new war doctrine that included the use of limited (regional) nuclear defenses if Russian forces in the field were threatened by the West. That is now part of Russia's military order of battle. Last resort, to be sure. But Putin and his military staff seem to sincerely believe that a small scale defensive nuclear strategy to be feasible.

The US deployed short range, small yield nuclear missiles   in Germany in the 1960s as a deterrent to a massive attack by the Warsaw pact.