[jemmyw]

> Russia is a nuclear power; do you think Putin is going to risk losing?

Given the track record of the US and Russia since getting nuclear weapons, yes?

Nukes might be pretty good at stopping someone invading your country but they're probably not a great help if you're the invader and you want to occupy the place you're invading. Especially if it's right next door

[XorNot]

It's only clear they're good at stopping invasions by history. You could (and possibly are) seeing the precedent set that border disputes can escalate to kinetic conflicts without nukes getting involved - the problem is no one knows where the line is and historically that kept things calm.

Who even knows if that's still the case though? If India goes after Kashmir so they genuinely think Pakistan would risk annihilation defending it if it was lost?

Russia could easily dispose of NATO as an ongoing problem by losing a war with the Baltics if the US then disregards Article 5 because "well it's just not worth risking nuclear war".

Appeasement doesn't work, but apparently we all forgot even the simplified history of WW2.