Rumor/Report: Russia gearing towards nuking ISIS

[Zekkyou]

Dulfite said:

Zekkyou said:
Never going to happen. Absolutely no developed nation wants to set a post-WW2 precedent for the aggressive use of nukes. Even ignoring that though, it would just make the situation worse. A lot of ISIS's propaganda revolves around painting the rest of the world as evil, and a nuke (and all the innocent deaths it would likely entail) would be a very effective way of convincing people in the region that they're right.

Russia isn't and doesn't consider itself Western. It doesn't focus on global ramifcations or perception. It marches to the beat of its own drum like it has for hundreds of years and like the people that have lived in that area for thousands of years. They were hit, now they want to hit back hard. I'd be stunned if Putin was even thinking about or concerned with how a response like this will impact the muslisms perception of the west. I doubt they care.

I never mentioned the west, i said developed. And of course Russia cares. Their relationship with other developed nations might be somewhat strained (and they have a tendency to see how far they can push the rules, as with China), but they are fully aware of the economic strain the rest of the world is capable of putting on any country that's dependent on the global economy (which Russia is). There are few things that would actually get the world to do something like that, because the rest of the world doesn't want to make a true enemy of Russia anymore than Russia does everyone else, but the aggressive use of a nuke would all but guarantee such a response.

And of course they care about how the people of the affected region would view them. What's the point in 'hitting hard' if all you accomplish is making your enemy stronger, and pissing off the entire world. Russia might like to see how far it can push the rules, but they aren't stupid.

Outside of ISIS acquiring and using nukes themselves (or something equally deadly/dramatic), the world will never be scared or angry enough to allow the use of nukes by a developed country without significant ramifications, both internally and externally. Quite rightly so.