The USA versus Russia

[otago]

The bloke down the road from me is a retired US air force Colonel, when I mentioned that some conservative types seemed to believe that a scrap in Georgia between the USA and Russia would be easy his response was, are they completely mad, he pointed out that the Russians believe that nukes are just another weapon and the Russians would make damn sure they nuked every airfield that could be used by the US air force to support any US troops.
It seems the only option the US would have then is to ramp it up to taking out Russian cities which would just not happen.
So it seems it goes back to the old rule of, never invade Russian soil which to Russians would include Georgia.
No wonder Georgia has not been invited to join NATO.

Wonder why some conservatives believe confronting Russia is smart, confronting a country that can wipe all your cities out seems pretty damn dumb.

 

[Bei1052]

Russia isn't dumb. What's the point of ruling if 99% of your population is wiped out, which is what would happen should anyone unleash the nukes.

 

[Cutlass]

I don't believe it's a widespread belief that Russia would immediately nuke the attacking forces. Soviet/Russian military officers are some coldly rational SOBs. The risk that massive numbers of Russian civilians would be wiped out has got to retrain them.

Wonder why some conservatives believe confronting Russia is smart, confronting a country that can wipe all your cities out seems pretty damn dumb.

Neocons. They invent everything that they "know" about foreign policy.

 

[otago]

I don't believe it's a widespread belief that Russia would immediately nuke the attacking forces. Soviet/Russian military officers are some coldly rational SOBs. The risk that massive numbers of Russian civilians would be wiped out has got to retrain them.

Neocons. They invent everything that they "know" about foreign policy.

A cold rational approach by the Russians would have them using tactical nukes.
They would know that the USA would never attack their civilians because that is a sure way to see Washington and New York fried.

 

[Camikaze]

This retired colonel seems to be under the impression that Russia = USSR. Not the say that a confrontation in the Caucasus wouldn't be very difficult for the US.

 

[Cutlass]

A cold rational approach by the Russians would have them using tactical nukes.
They would know that the USA would never attack their civilians because that is a sure way to see Washington and New York fried.

But we have nukes too. 1000s of them.

 

[REDY]

The bloke down the road from me is a retired US air force Colonel, when I mentioned that some conservative types seemed to believe that a scrap in Georgia between the USA and Russia would be easy his response was, are they completely mad, he pointed out that the Russians believe that nukes are just another weapon and the Russians would make damn sure they nuked every airfield that could be used by the US air force to support any US troops.
It seems the only option the US would have then is to ramp it up to taking out Russian cities which would just not happen.
So it seems it goes back to the old rule of, never invade Russian soil which to Russians would include Georgia.
No wonder Georgia has not been invited to join NATO.

Wonder why some conservatives believe confronting Russia is smart, confronting a country that can wipe all your cities out seems pretty damn dumb.

I dont like your reasoning, because it considers only smartness. When you will say that reason for not confronting Russia is that its not smart, it implies that confronting other countries is OK.
Also when your friend would be attacked by knife, you would try to defend him even if you would risk that attacker will cut you.

 

[otago]

I dont like your reasoning, because it considers only smartness. When you will say that reason for not confronting Russia is that its not smart, it implies that confronting other countries is OK.
Also when your friend would be attacked by knife, you would try to defend him even if you would risk that attacker will cut you.

Nope, brutal honesty, since WW2 the USA has never had a scrap with a country that could cause real damage to the USA.

Russia has the ability to cause real damage to the US, which is why it would not be smart to confront them over Georgia.
Just looking at Russian history shows they are prepared to use scorch earthed tactics to damage any attacker.

 

[West 36]

Scorched earth isn't an attack, its a defensive tactic. Nukes =! scorched earth.

 

[otago]

Scorched earth isn't an attack, its a defensive tactic. Nukes =! scorched earth.

Same end result, different weapon.
Remember the Russians set fire to their own capital.

 

[woody60707]

What happen to the The USA versus the world thread???

 

[Thorvald of Lym]

Same end result, different weapon.

So... they'll be nuking themselves?

 

[bigdog5994]

Wonder why some conservatives believe confronting Russia is smart, confronting a country that can wipe all your cities out seems pretty damn dumb.

yea any rational mind knows the best way to deal with a country that can destroy all of your cities is too roll over and play dead

 

[civ_king]

Country Warheads active/total
United States 2,700 / 9,400
Russia 4,840 / 13,000

we got nukes, they got nukes,

nuclear warfare=everyone loses

 

[BirraImperial]

Another one of these threads? come on!

 

[Godwynn]

So... they'll be nuking themselves?

Sounds like a win-win situation to me.

 

[azzaman333]

We are all under the control of the hypnotoad anyway.

 

[aelf]

yea any rational mind knows the best way to deal with a country that can destroy all of your cities is too roll over and play dead

Actually, that's what many would do. It makes sense.

 

[Winner]

The bloke down the road from me is a retired US air force Colonel, when I mentioned that some conservative types seemed to believe that a scrap in Georgia between the USA and Russia would be easy his response was, are they completely mad, he pointed out that the Russians believe that nukes are just another weapon and the Russians would make damn sure they nuked every airfield that could be used by the US air force to support any US troops.
It seems the only option the US would have then is to ramp it up to taking out Russian cities which would just not happen.
So it seems it goes back to the old rule of, never invade Russian soil which to Russians would include Georgia.
No wonder Georgia has not been invited to join NATO.

Wonder why some conservatives believe confronting Russia is smart, confronting a country that can wipe all your cities out seems pretty damn dumb.

That's simply not what the Russians would do. They certainly don't see nukes as "just another weapon", that kind of thinking is obsolete even in Russia. And do I have to remind you that the USSR didn't use nukes against China during the border clashes in 1960's, which were much more serious than the South Ossetian skirmish?

If the US intervened in the South Ossetian war, the Russian moves would be entirely dependent on the nature of the US intervention - they'd most likely avoid shooting on US/NATO forces and stop moving into Georgia (while at the same time lambasting the Western imperialism and aggression, of course). They'd NEVER go to an all out war because of Georgia.

 

[Elta]

Another one of these threads? come on!

My first thoughts exactly