Enjoying the view from Limbo
Russian state television, aka the official propaganda wing of Vladimir Putin’s Kremlin, is openly “advising” Putin (whose official message this is) that “the time has come for us to hold drills for practising scenarios in which Russian tactical nuclear weapons are used,” on the pretext that “We will soon be issued with a direct nuclear ultimatum from Nato [sic].” In other words, just...
Desperation will tempt a man to try almost anything. A desperate man who lacks virtue — who “has no conscience” as we moderns are wont to say — is more likely to succumb to the temptations of despair. Nothing infuses a man with desperation more thoroughly than the approach of public humiliation and ignominious defeat. And no one fears public humiliation more intensely...
During the acknowledged period of the Cold War (which never really ended), the nuclear risk, though serious, was always somewhat mitigated by the fact that the Soviet Union’s goals and strategies were systemic, rather than personal. That is, the Cold War was waged not against one unstable individual who, if feeling threatened — including from within his own country — might become rabid...
Here’s a new headline from the Washington Post: “North Korea working to conceal key aspects of its nuclear program, U.S. officials say.” Can you believe it? Frankly, I can’t. I mean, Super-Genius promised Americans that the North Korean threat was over, and that they could sleep well, secure in the knowledge that Kim Jong-un was a great guy after all. But seriously, the...
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