What do you think are the similarities between Russia threatening to bomb Nato missile sites and the West threatening to wage war against Iran over their alleged nuclear weapons programme?

One glaring similarity immediately apparent is that I couldn’t care less about either scenario.

The primary similarity is that neither will happen. Both of these situations are political poker games and simply not about to take place.

The other similarities are pretty obvious. One side doesn’t like what the other is doing and threatens to do something about it. Governments are bullying other governments and once again, as always, the people in the countries are the pawns.

Why would governments make such obvious empty threats, @elbanditoroso? Nothing reduces one’s credibility faster than making a threat to do something that seems totally ridiculous. That’s pretty dangerous, actually, because someone people get strongly tempted to call the bluff, and then the bluffer realizes they lose more by backing down than by throwing out the bomb.

Typical saber-rattling.

@wundayatta – they make threats for political gain internally and to push their weight around regionally.

Putin has no intention of shooting missiles into western europe. He has much more to lose by doing that than any other country, and certainly a lot more to lose than the US. What would be the point of blowing up Poland?

He’s making noises to look strong.

Did you ever see the movie WarGames (Matthew Broderick)? Go and watch the last 8 minutes…... (tic tac toe)

@ucme Glad to hear you’re not a NIMBY. Seems your back yard would then be an excellent location for one of those NATO missile installations.

Seems to me that the issues motivating the threats and the likelihood of them succeeding are about equal.

@ETpro Ahem, I have a garden, back yards are for roustabouts & run down schools.
Nice piece of aggression though, watch that blood pressure old fellow.

@ucme It’s 110 over 72. Doing just fine, but thanks for your concern.

It is possible that they made the threat to show the U.S. how silly their position is. Nobody is bombing anyone unless the Republicans win the presidency and Congress then I expect them to bomb Iran, Syria, and pretty near anybody with brown skin. It’s a good thing the Russians are mostly white or we would have bombed them already.