[tekno45]

you can have a tiny nuclear war, as a treat.

insane we're back here.

[Legend2440]

We kinda never really left.

[red-iron-pine]

if anything, we had fantastic stability because of it, and because there were rational-ish actors holding the bombs

[ASalazarMX]

It was a fantastic bluff from the USA to make the USSR believe that Bufford "Mad Dog" Tannen was in charge of the nukes, when in reality it was Doc. Brown.

[stoneforger]

The OG grift, FUD and extortion money. But call it a military industrial complex.. The Devil's Playground was an eye+opener

[ajuc]

All we needed to do was accept Ukraine to NATO. Or provide actual military help back in 2014.

Instead we paid more, got hundreds of thousands of people dead, undermined our security guarantees, and all because of short term idiocy/cowardice.

The only reasonable consequence is EU countries getting nukes and getting closer to China.

And we're digging our grave further by Trump undermining NATO guarantees.

[mothballed]

North Korea has nukes but those in the Nordics are bragging about defeating Russia by buying heat pumps. Much of Europe has been living in a time of what amounts to ignorant bliss which Putin is slowly shaking them out of.

[knallfrosch]

It would have been stupid not to try peace.

Germany hasn't invaded France (or vice versa) for two generations now. The Soviet Union dissolved itself peacefully by act of parliament. (Compare to Germany/Japan/Napoleon)

[hiprob]

"Peacefully" is a strong word, that same parliament would later be "peacefully" removed. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1993_Russian_constitutional_cr...

[knallfrosch]

Can you name a more peaceful end of an 20th century empire?

[graemep]

If you want peace, prepare for war

[mothballed]

And if you aren't prepared, but you have peace anyway, you never really made the choice. You just had a bout of luck.

[tim333]

>Nordics are bragging about defeating Russia by buying heat pumps...ignorant bliss...

I think you'll find Finland in particular doesn't have much innocent bliss regards Russia and some history there.