Gheorghiță Vlad issued a stark warning about the state of the nation’s army, calling for immediate action.
Romania isn’t prepared for a potential war with Russia and it needs to brace, the country’s defense chief said.
Gheorghiță Vlad, chief of defense of Romania, said, “Yes, the population of Romania, like the entire population of the European Union, of Europe, must be concerned,” in an interview with Europa Liberă România published Thursday.
“If he wins in Ukraine, the main target will be the Republic of Moldova. We will witness tensions in the Western Balkans,” the Romanian general added. “I am more than convinced that President Putin’s policy will escalate in the near future.”
MAD only works if your enemy thinks that you really will nuke them about it. In this case Russia has to believe that America, the UK, or France will nuke Russia over, say, Poland or Romania. It’s possible that NATO leadership thinks that Russian leadership does not think that the three NATO nuclear powers would follow through.
Western powers started out relatively strong but at this point I could almost see Putin betting on a weak response. I’m hoping some of these warnings get heeded and the US/EU realizes they won’t even have to think about it if they simply provide Ukraine with overwhelming support.
MAD is only a nuclear deterrent. Unless/until someone uses a nuclear weapon, WW3 would be a conventional war, like Ukraine. If Putin were to start invading NATO countries, the response from NATO would be conventional — nobody who isn’t insane and suicidal would choose to launch nukes, unless they genuinely believed that they are being nuked (which makes nuclear terrorism a real existential threat).
What MAD means is nuclear powers are unlikely to be physically invaded, especially in areas of known nuclear weapon installations — a nuclear power believing it is facing imminent defeat, or nuclear attack, is most likely to use them; dictators like Putin are sociopathic enough to take the entire species with them.