War is the consequence of a lack of defense, not the opposite. Nothing could illustrates that more than the period since 1947 and the invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Never has the world been so heavily armed. We have nukes that can wipe each other out at the press of a button. The result? A period of peace unprecedented in human history.
Putin invaded Ukraine because he thought he could win easily. Countries don't risk their existence in that way unless lead by madmen.
Would keeping a few nukes have protected Ukraine from Russia?
Likely a prolonged period of espionage and subterfuge by the Russians to gain control of those nukes would have ensued. Maintaining control would be difficult especially in Eastern Ukraine where the Russian language predominates.
Putin wants to recreate the military conquests of previous Russian leaders. He thinks he's Peter the Great but his situation is more akin to Don Quixote de la Mancha in his later years: I imagine that he sees all those nukes, regrets how much they cost to make and maintain and that he hasn't launched them (each launch moving a line item from a debit column to a credit column). He may not yet realize that the fuel from one nuclear warhead in a nuclear reactor could supply a small city with electrical power for years. IOW he's sitting on a fortune and doesn't know it. Sad.
Did you know that for the past two decades, 10 percent of all the electricity consumed in the United States has come from Russian nuclear warheads?
Russia is enormous geographically, has wonderful resources and people who are bright and creative. A shame they're getting killed in Ukraine. The only good news is that there will be more women for each young man and, once they return from war, each will be tasked with the need to create a new generation of Russians. Good work, if you can get it. If they don't, the Chinese will move in from the east (probably will anyway, already doing it de facto).
Never has the world been so heavily armed. We have nukes that can wipe each other out at the press of a button. The result? A period of peace unprecedented in human history.
Putin invaded Ukraine because he thought he could win easily. Countries don't risk their existence in that way unless lead by madmen.