the issue with the recent wars (US v. Iraq, Russia v. Ukrane, Russia v. Syria, Israel v. Gaza) is that it's showing that large nuclear powers can do just about anything to non-nuclear countries (that they, jointly, prevent from attaining nuclear weapons) because of MAD, but in-kind backing up your ally when attacked would provoke a nuclear strike.
like i think a lot of us knew that's how things would likely play out, but now it's written in neon.
I fear for every nation with several fractional trillion dollars in natural gas fields because that sure does seem the main motivation for those last 3 outside lebensraum.
the only way i see to fight this as someone well read but still relatively ignorant to the forces at play is for smaller nations to create enough of an alliance that they can fight it conventionally without a nuclear power, because the hands of all nukies are tied.
