Name:   MartiniMan - Subject:   Is Putin serious..and how should we respond? Date:   9/21/2022 10:46:59 AM

I personally think we would be foolish not to take him at his word and I hope we will not see another line in the sand response like Obama did on use of chemical weapons and then nothing.  Putin knows Biden is mentally diminished and what he says is not the official government position on anything.   It is likely that Susan Rice and Ron Klayman are the real decision makers and they likely take their direction from Obama (bet they are on the phone with him as I type).  It seems highly unlikely he would give them the go ahead.  Putin is clearly bonkers and is getting desperate as the war is not going well as evidenced by his recent draft announcement.  His troops are running away when faced with a serious threat because unlike the U.S., they have no problem leaving them behind to die or be captured.

I frankly have no idea what would be the correct response as we are in new territory here with this threat.  Any nuclear response from the U.S. will certainly provoke a direct nuclear attack on the U.S. which will quickly escalate.  We know the EU is feckless and will likely not respond in kind.  Does Ukraine have nukes or did they destroy them as agreed in 1994?  We have no mutual defense treaty although we have bilateral defense consultations with them.  I will say this, I do not believe we should consider risking the lives of millions of Americans for Ukraine by responding with nuclear weapons.......but can we just sit by and let Russia get away with this?  What a mess.  A very, very scary mess.