Originally Posted by k0nr4d

You write about guaranteeing security - no one is guaranteeing it right now to begin with. NATO and article 5 is a bluff, but no one is going to attack an American military installation unless they want that mutually assured destruction thing to happen (which, as you said yourself - is going to be target #1 in a pre-emptive strike). A pre-emptive strike does not have to be nuclear, as any weapons there could be taken destroyed by non-nuclear weapons. The Russian media portrays NATO as the aggressor and our (mostly German) media portrays Russia as the aggressor.

As for why would Putin act differently then JFK? Because times are different, intelligence and spying has evolved far beyond what it was in the 60s, and I feel Putin is actually quite cool-headed (Case-in-point, He hasn't turned Turkey into a smouldering crater, and he could probably take Istanbul in a week if he wanted to). He's not going to turn red with anger. He'd answer by placing nukes in Kaliningrad if they aren't already there, and probably some economic sanctions - but he's not going to attack Poland either. Cuba is small island, Poland is a sizable country.

Who knows though, maybe Kaczynski (the "power behind the throne so to speak) is fantasizing about rebuilding Poland as a superpower like it was in the 1600s or something. Maybe we'll be invading Ukraine from the other end - who knows... Nothing to do but wait and see how it plays out.

IMHO our biggest threat isn't Putin, it's Merkel...