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Comment by mc32 | Hacker News Reader

…Meanwhile in Brussels and Washington: “What red lines? Ignore red lines!” (I'm colorblind, I think those are green!)

It ain’t pre winter of ‘92 no more with “the day after” looming in people’s minds. Instead it’s “l-l-l-l-let’s play chicken!” (Bob Barker voice)

Curtis LeMay was 60 years too early.

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The only action that will cause a retaliatory nuclear strike is a first nuclear strike. That's the only red line wrt Russia et al vs the West.

If your primary military targets are innocent people then you should expect them to receive aid.

While I agree if we're dealing with completely logical operators, right now there is a massive potential for accidents.

> Instead it’s “l-l-l-l-let’s play chicken!” (Bob Barker voice)

Unfortunately, if Putin decides this is a game he wants to play, then this is a game we cannot choose not to play. We can choose not to play it now, but we will have to play it later. That's a lesson Chamberlain and the whole world learned in 1938/39.

I think your understanding of the geopolitical game state here is way off. The reality is that nuclear war is less likely in now that it was during the cold war. We aren't in isolated echo chambers fearing an ideology we don't understand, the only reason anyone wants nukes is to prevent other people from nuking them. The world is running on capitalism, there isn't the same ideological drive to conflict. We're in a metastable equilibrium. Ukraine blowing up ammo depots in Russia is far further away from catalyzing WW3 than the Cuban Missile Crisis. Vasily Arkhipov etc etc.

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