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Tomahawk missiles are Russia’s latest red line. Will Trump call Putin’s bluff?

Russia’s attempts to impose red lines on Ukraine’s Western allies are a key part of the intimidation tactics employed by Putin since the start of the war. During his address announcing the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Putin threatened the West with “such consequences that you have never faced in your history” if they dared to intervene. This rather obvious reference to nuclear war set the tone for the relentless nuclear blackmail that has followed. When it became apparent last year that Putin’s nuclear bluster was losing its potency, he ostentatiously revised Russia’s nuclear doctrine to lower the threshold for nuclear strikes and heighten the fear factor throughout the democratic world.

Russia’s nuclear threats have certainly not been subtle, but they have proved surprisingly effective against risk-averse Western leaders. From the eve of the invasion onward, every single debate over the delivery of new weapons to Ukraine has been dragged out and delayed by overblown fears of possible escalation and craven talk of the need to avoid provoking Putin.

The timidity of the West has only served to embolden the Kremlin dictator and prolong the war, enabling Russia to punch well above its geopolitical weight against far wealthier and better armed opponents. Indeed, while his armies have struggled to advance on the battlefields of Ukraine, Putin’s ability to intimidate the West has been arguably his single biggest success of the entire invasion.

This success is all the more remarkable given how many times Putin’s threats have been exposed as empty. Russia’s unilaterally declared red lines over the supply of everything from Javelin anti-tank weapons and Patriot air defense systems to F-16 fighter jets and Leopard tanks have all eventually been violated without consequence. Likewise, the Ukrainian army has repeatedly demonstrated its complete disregard for Putin’s red lines by liberating large swathes of the country from Russian occupation, chasing the Russian Black Sea Fleet out of Crimea, and invading Russia itself.

None of this has sparked World War III. On the contrary, Putin has responded to each fresh military setback by attempting to downplay the significance of his latest humiliation. Russian retreats have been rebranded in Orwellian fashion as “goodwill gestures,” while earlier protests over the planned delivery of new weapons systems have been replaced by expressions of defiant indifference.

I think if nukes are going to be the thing to take us out in the near future it will be due to these idiots testing nuclear weapons as part of the long tradition of dick measuring.

I just think Trump, like Putin usually tends to use nuclear war threats to intimidate and distract, so I'm less inclined to think a real fear of nuclear threats would be reason for them to move on to a military base.

Emergent BioSolutions Releases New Survey Findings Revealing Heightened Concerns About Biological Threats and U.S. Preparedness

This was published 2 days ago by the company that stockpiles vaccines for the U.S. They've had all kinds of shady scandals in the past regarding government contracts and vaccinations. They manufacture narcan as well as vaccines for monkey pox, small pox, the only anthrax vaccine, and I think a few others. They used to be called BioPort, but they changed their name after the Anthrax vaccine that many soldiers were forced to get during the gulf war was linked to gulf war syndrome.

Trump also had some shady dealings with them just before the COVID pandemic to make a lot of money with government contracts and bio warfare https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/before-the-pandemic-top-contractor-received-billions-from-government-to-help-prepare-the-nation-for-biowarfare/2020/06/17/38d9ad3a-a41b-11ea-8681-7d471bf20207_story.html

Also seems odd that two days ago HHS fired their biosecurity adviser, Steven Hatfill especially given his history.

How The FBI Botched the 2001 Anthrax Scare Hatfill was falsely accused of being the bioterrorist who sent out anthrax in letters mailed in the U.S. following 9/11. His career was destroyed, and he eventually sued the FBI for harassment and rightfully won.

I could definitely be wrong about their exact reason for moving on to the base, but I just think something like this would be more likely than a nuclear threat. Whatever it is, it doesn't seem like anything we should not be worried about.

I think I remember reading about something like this in Biohazard by Ken Alibek: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biohazard_(book)

Although it might just be easier to do using good old variola (Demon in the Freezer by Richard Preston).