No-fly zone? Are you kidding me?
How fast the world has forgotten the dangers of a nuclear conflict...
In following the news about the conflict in Ukraine, through Twitter and other social media platforms, I have been appalled at how clueless most people are about the dangers of a nuclear conflict.
For those of us that were born before the collapse of the Soviet Union, the possible consequences are totally beyond contemplating. We grew up in a world in which we “knew” that we might be wiped out of existence at any moment. We “knew” that tensions between nuclear powers had to be de-escalated, as soon as possible.
Now, we find ourselves in a world where most people seem happy to cheer on the idea of a military confrontation between the two nuclear superpowers. What seems to be missing is the knowledge that just one of these countries, be it the United States or Russia, has the ability to totally wipe out all life on Earth, multiple times.
Perhaps it was the decades of tranquility during which we had mostly the United States flexing its military muscles that led people to forget that Russia is a military superpower, nuclear and otherwise. Russia has more tanks than the United States and China, combined. In fact, Ukraine which is outnumbered almost 5 to 1 by Russia has twice as many thanks as Greece, the country with the third-largest tank force in Europe.
A confrontation between NATO and Russia will not result in Russia’s rapid defeat, as some people may believe. Not through military means, at least. Luckily, for the rest of us, there still seem to be some people that can connect the dots, and thus NATO has rejected the idea of imposing a no-fly zone as doing so would lead to a confrontation that might have no winners, only losers.
The facts currently unfolding in Ukraine are always in my mind, as two of my dearest friends have family members in the Kyiv region. Despite the emotions that run high, we need to exercise critical thinking, and not get carried away by those that present alternatives without considering their possible consequences.
