We're all going to die

[MT2008]

No, we are not all going to die. This sort of thing is practically de rigeur for dictators who lead by personality cult and/or nationalist/anti-American sentiment. Most of you guys are probably too young to remember, but even our "friend" Boris Yeltsin once declared he was willing to start a world war over Kosovo, back when the U.S. was bombing Serb forces/paramilitaries there.

Originally Posted by funkychinaman

I think it's a little odd that we're defending Ukraine a lot more vigorously than we did Georgia, whih was actually an ally of ours. But as Bond villain-y as Putin is, I believe he's driven by pragmatism rather than ideology, and cooler heads will prevail. If I'm wrong, may radioactive fire rain from the sky.

Putin is pragmatic, but nationalism is a difficult beast to control once it's out of its cage.

I'm not worried about Putin using nukes in conflict, but I am worried about him taking bigger risks than expected in order to live up to the rep he's now built for himself, both domestically and in Russia's near-abroad. What the MH17 incident should teach us is that Putin has been stirring the pot without control of the stove temperature. I am sure he was pissed off at the separatists for what they did, but once it happened, he was forced to double down on his support for them in order to save face.