" MAD "

It looks like those three little letters are about to come back to haunt us.   During the days of the Cold War they stood for " Mutually Assured Destruction " and it was very clear to both America and the Soviet Union that there would be no winners in a nuclear exchange.   Both sides were on hair trigger alert.   B-52"s of America's Strategic Air Command  ( SAC ) were on air patrol twenty-four/seven armed with nuclear weapons, and Soviet " Backfire " bombers maintained a similar vigil.   The worlds oceans contained nuclear submarines and on land massive ICBM's sheltered in hardened silos, each fitted with multiple entry hydrogen warheads that would evaporate entire cities.   At the press of a button World War Three would annihilate much of the civilization that had taken centuries to build.

Good sense prevailed and eventually an understanding was reached that saw a stand down of those nuclear forces.  The Soviet Union renounced Communism - and Europe relaxed.  The threat of a Russian invasion melted away, until Vladimir Putin became the Czar of the new Russia - and the old quest for domination over it's neighbours reasserted itself.   Russia is on the move - and the first Domino to feel it's pressure is Ukraine.

Russia learned a strategic lesson from the days of Adolph Hitler.   Hitler was the master of bluff and he played the brinksmanship game to perfection to net Austria and Czechoslovakia without Britain and France resorting to war.   He finally over reached with the invasion of Poland - and this resulted in the most destructive war to visit planet Earth.

Russia has seized and annexed Crimea from Ukraine and has launched a limited invasion to secure it's Russian speaking east.   It is a fine balance of bluff and brawn worthy of the tactics used by Hitler and so far it has brought only sanctions that are imposing financial hardship.   The nations of the west have made it very clear that there will be no military intervention to stop this Russian advance.

Ominously,  Putin has reminded the world that Russia is a nuclear power and seems to hint that there are limits to the degree of opposition he will tolerate from the west.  Just as Hitler found out in Poland, there is a very real chance that he may overplay his hand or events may spin out of control.  Putin's hint of nuclear sabre rattling will surely escalate tensions and increase nuclear readiness in the world's  other nuclear powers.

The last thing we want is fingers poised above the nuclear button but it seems that Putin is determined to create a Russian empire and the countries that formed the old Soviet block have good reason to be worried. Bluff and brinksmanship is a dangerous game.  Even more so when the pot of chips on the table has moved into the nuclear age - and loss of face may provoke dangerous miscalculations.

Let is hope that all the players in this poker game remember what " MAD " stands for !