Self Aware Numbers Station @HereticSoul@cybre.space

Big STALKER Energy

Extremely into the energy the Metro games give off

Guess I'm 30 now

Hey psst, I submitted a short game to the Emotional Mech Jam. Check it out!

https://itch.io/jam/sad-mecha-game-jam/rate/369774

The point of all this is: the US is withdrawing from the INF with a reason that by itself may be justified but in a way that really doesn't do anything meaningful or help in any way. And it's not strictly a new thing- US nuclear strategy has not been the most sensical thing for a long time.

Just... whenever you find yourself trying to make sense of nuclear politics and strategy, remember: someone once thought the Davy Crockett was a good idea.

This includes low-yield nuclear warheads, new iterations of which are being developed now. Low-yield warheads are also something Russia has been building for a while.

The idea behind them being that they are nuclear weapons ("""tactical nuclear weapons""") that can be used in a war without actually escalating to a nuclear exchange.

if this doesn't make much sense to you, you're right again. It's an asenine strategy.

Things were not sunshine and disarmament until the 2016 election in the US. There has been a lot of resistance to disarmament in US nuclear command and a push to "modernize" our nuclear forces to keep up with potential adversaries. This includes a strategy of wanting to develop warheads and delivery systems for *every possible situation*. While we may not be expanding our stockpile of warheads, the US certainly wants to build more nuclear-capable weapons.

What does this accomplish? If you ask me, nothing. From the angle of enforcing the treaty, all it does is punish Russia by shredding an agreement they were cheating on anyways.

It does allow the US to start openly building intermediate range weapons. If this sounds like a scary new policy, I have news that may not be reassuring but hopefully is: it's not that different from what we're already doing.

So why are we pulling out of it? The claim is that Russia has repeatedly built missiles that violate the treaty, including one, if memory serves, where without a full payload the missile just skated past 5,500km minimum range, into long range territory, but with a full nuclear payload, would fall into intermediate range.

The stated position is, if Russia isn't going to comply, the US refuses to be constrained by it.

(note: people in NATO countries were also not very happy about having US missiles deployed in their countries)

In response, the US upped its own deployment of intermediate range weapons in Europe, which the USSR didn't like.

The INF Treaty was negotiated as a way to de-escalate this situation and give European NATO allies peace of mind while also withdrawing weapons that the Soviets saw as a threat (this is oversimplified but you get the basics)

Back in the 70's the USSR deployed a modernized version of one of its intermediate-range ballistic missiles (IRBM) that could be launched from the back of a mobile launcher, making them easy to deploy without detection, and with a range that could hit a lot of European countries with a launch inside the USSR's borders.

This, naturally, scared the heck out of European NATO allies.

What the heck is the INF Treaty? It's a treaty signed by the USSR and US during the cold war banning the deployment of intermediate-range nuclear weapons (500-5,500 km) in Europe and a reduction of intermediate-range weapons deployed by both parties around the world.

Alright why not. This will not be especially coherent, thus yelling.

So the US is suspending compliance with (and planning on pulling out of) the INF Treaty with Russia! Two things to remember:

1. if this sounds like it accomplishes nothing, you're largely right.
2. Maybe 45 has his own reasons for going that route but this isn't unique to him. There were reportedly people in the Obama administration arguing we should withdraw from the INF treaty in 2014.

Is this the sort of place where people would listen to me yelling about the US withdrawing from the INF treaty. Is that the sort of thing people are interested in.

I don't want to see or be seen by:
Happy couples

No, ESPECIALLY Mastodon.

Tech will not save us, and that includes Mastodon. On every level.