In terms of materiel, maybe not.
Lives and morale, though, are much harder to measure in relation to weapons deployment.
Pete
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Russia’s ICBMs are probably 30 or 40 years old, nearly obsolete, and in need of a costly refurb or replacement. Using them might have been cost of fuel and explosives. Cheaper than disassembly and disposal.
I’ve requested a hold on this book at my library:
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According to the New York Times , US and European officials have discussed a range of options they believe will deter Russia from taking more Ukrainian territory, including providing Kiev with nuclear weapons.
Oh goody! What could go wrong?
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After WWII the US did a big study on the effects of strategic bombing. One of the surprising results was it actually rallied the civilian populations. Think of the US population’s response to 9/11.
Details are sparse but it sounds like it carried kinetic warheads. So not much bang (literally) for the buck. If Putin really wants to expend this capability in demonstration project I say let him.
Ukraine had nuclear weapons, lots of them (1700 to be precise) when the USSR broke up. They gave them up in return for a pledge from the US (and presumably NATO) to defend them in case of aggression.
How’s that working out for them?
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iirc, that treaty also provided assurances from Russia that it would respect Ukrainian territorial integrity.
Steve
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Yep. It was called the Budapest Memorandum. Russia promised to never attack Ukraine. It is kind of touching how people want to believe Putin can be trusted to keep the next deal.
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Yup, just like anyone thinks the US can be trusted to comply with a treaty.
Steve…exceptional R us
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About as well as it did Muammar Gaddafi when he agreed to eliminate his country’s weapons of mass destruction program, including a decades-old nuclear weapons program
North Korea will never relinquish their nukes. The west will come for you if you do.
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Sheesh Steve! Next you will bring up US unilateral intervention in Syria.
Of course, the rule of law does NOT apply to the “Exceptional” nation.
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2158244020919533
The United States as one of the intervening powers has shown support for the rebel forces geared at toppling the Assad government.
A significant number of studies have been conducted on the legality of American interventions in the Syrian conflict. Beskardes (2016), in examining the legality of American-led interventions in Syria, described the actions of the United States as illegal as they contravened the provisions of the Charter on humanitarian interventions. In a similar opinion, Van der Vyver (2015) confirmed the illegality of American interventions in the Syrian conflict when juxtaposing them on the International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) ruling of the Nicaragua case. Van der Vyver (2015) explained that the interventions are illegal due to the fact that they afford rebel forces weapons to overthrow an elected government.
Our government is still peeved at Russia’s victory there keeping Assad in power.
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Iraq did not have a nuclear weapons program for many years before 2003.
1 million+ Iraqis died because of Gulf war 2, a country is devastated and Trillions lost.
It is best that US not play the “moral high ground” and “trust” card
Biden is engaging in a dangerous scorched-earth policy.
I think it is more local than that. The Assad tribe has been an irritant for Israel, for decades. From time to time, Israel elects to bomb something in Syria, because it can, but intervention on the ground would probably bring a phalanx of Islamic majority states in on Assad’s side. The “Arab spring” provided an excuse for the US to engage on the rebel’s side, in the hope of tipping Assad over. But the Russians directly engaged on Assad’s side. So, stalemate, with Assad still in power.
Steve
Ukraine lost more than 40% of the territory in Russia’s Kursk region that it captured in a surprise offensive in August with the Russians launching multiple counter-attacks, a senior source in Kyiv’s army said. While the Kursk invasion caught Moscow unprepared, Russian forces are still steadily advancing in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region.
Ukraine used its best troops for the Kursk offensive. Perhaps not the best use of those troops. Could those troops stop the Russian advance in Donetsk?
The Kursk offensive is begining to look like the Ukrainian version of the Wacht am Rhein offensive in 1944. You might know it better as The Battle of the Bulge. And no that is not a reference to the current physical state of the US population.
I predict the peace negotiation will begin early next year. Ukraine no longer in a position of strength will obtain a less favorable agreement than they negotiated in 2022 that the West talked Zelensky out of signing.
The war is out of favor in the USA. Scholtz has called Putin. Like the US, NATO has emptied their weaponry cabinet and is now seriously considering 5% defense spending which they can ill afford.
What Ukraine will receive is a hardy “Thank you for your service” as they are tossed under the bus.
Besides the destruction of infrastructure that can rebuilt, they will have a generation of warriors, if the US War on Terror is any gauge of measurement to go by, with PTSD, substance abuse, divorce, physical disabilities, homelessness, to say nothing of money needed by the Ukrainian government to treat those problems.
But the US strategic goal of bleeding the Russian military & economy will have been achieved. A big success when compared to the US’s WOT. And made with no loss of US life. The brandy will be broken out in the halls of the US government as our leaders toast themselves on a job well done.
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Looks like we are going to keep our word with Ukraine like we did with Poland in 1939.
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What was our word with Poland in 1939?
DB2
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Tell that to Putin who started the war and gobbled up large areas of Ukraine.
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Israel tried that. Gaza was in 2005 to be a state. There are three levels of governance tribal, Hamas, or an actual government. The only level that was elected and won’t negotiate or act in peace is Hamas. It is a quasi government that never had another election and never really ran Gaza as a country.
Instead by constantly warring with Israel a blockade was set up against Gaza.
The same is going on with the PLA. The PLA is refusing to govern. There are armed groups on the West Bank. It is frustrating and not all innocence.
The Israeli patience long ran out.
Jordan is mostly Palestinian. The Israelis are 19% Palestinian. Those two body politics decided Jews are not a problem for them.
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