Is Russia (or China) going to "pee in the punch bowl"?

"War continues to be the bane of mankind. Only today, war in not fought with swords and spears. The next world war will be fought with weapons so terrible, so frightful, they cannot be fully comprehended. We can comprehend nuclear war; the question is this - can Putin comprehend it."

I am a retired Cold Warrior. As such, I lived under the specter of nuclear war. I know, I know - we all did. But it was the job of every Cold Warrior to keep the Cold War from going hot. But here is the thing man (to quote Sleepy Joe) - nuclear war was so scary, so unthinkable, it was rarely ever mentioned.

Flash forward to today. All of a sudden, the term "nuclear war" is tossed around like cheap candy. I can't even count the number of times that Putin has threatened the West with nuclear war since he invaded Ukraine and got push back from NATO. I don't know if Putin became brainwashed or had a medical issue which led him to think that a nuclear exchange was winnable.

Just last week, little "Rocket Man" decided to join the fray. He (once again) threatened South Korea with a nuclear war. I know that Kim Jong Un is not the sharpest blade in the drawer, but the last time he started to blather like this, we had to gently remind him that if launched a nuke at anybody, we would turn his country into a sheet of glass. 

As a reminder, here is the long and the short of what would happen in a nuclear exchange. Let's suppose Putin launched a nuke at DC. Everything within a mile of the blast would be vaporized - the temps would be as hot as the sun. Everything within a five-mile radius would be burnt. Beyond that, would be the blast damage. Then comes the radiation. It would poison the Earth. 

Now think about 500 to 1,000 nukes going off in cities all over the world. The resulting aftereffect would be a nuclear winter. A nuclear winter lasting for years. There is probably no prepper in the world, which would be prepared enough to outlast the food drought which would follow a nuclear exchange. A full out nuclear war would be the end. Period. Full stop.

The thing most of us old Cold Warriors remember is this - a nuclear war is as unthinkable as getting hit by a huge asteroid. Mankind right now is on the verge of entering into a brand-new stage of technology. Wonders will abound. But Putin might be the one (or China, or North Korea, or Iran) who will "pee in humanities punch bowl". 

"War - what is it good for? Absolutely nothing...". Those are partial lyrics from the song "War" from 1970. War continues to be the bane of mankind. Only today, war in not fought with swords and spears. The next world war will be fought with weapons so terrible, so frightful, they cannot be fully comprehended. We can comprehend nuclear war; the question is this - can Putin comprehend it.