If it remained a conventional war and China didn't participate, NATO would win. I don't have any doubt about that. The results would be horrific for all involved, however. Such a war, until a couple of days ago, seemed so remote as to be consigned to the realm of video games and a particular genre of fiction. No longer. Vladimir Putin has committed the act of a madman against a very large European country of about 44 million, a country the size of France. The peace of 75 years, tenuous at times, but free of a declared war of conquest by one state against another, has been shattered.
NATO countries would probably need the same kind of build-up and revamping that Allies needed during WWII. Russian leaders have purged and starved more of their own in peacetime than they would lose in war, and would balance those books executing civilian deserters. Putin is like Tom Cruise's cousin In the Bedroom, so is the Champions League Tom Wilkinson outside a cabin in the woods, or Nick Stahl's head goulash?
The Russians are struggling with Ukraine. That should be enough to tell you how poorly trained their army is. The problem is if it was a conventional war it would be a bloodbath because NATO alliance would win easily but Russia has the largest nuclear arsenal in the world so it would be a nuclear holocaust that would end up destroying the entire European continent
Sadly some folks like money and war makes them money so they like war as long as they are not in danger. Also in many cases policies that those who REALLY do not want war can see have a huge possibility of war being "forced upon you" are recklessly pushed. For example making NATO expansion to Ukraine non-negotiable while proclaiming you will not fight in Ukraine because, Thank God you REALLY do not want Nuclear War.
USA wins. The biggest winner from any unstable and fighting continent is always USA. That’s why NATO has expanded eastbound 5 times, and at the same time Russia’s request to join NATO was turned down 3 times. If Europe is unified, UK will become almost obsolete and US wouldn’t be able to dictate the direction of Europe. Will Europe ever be unified? Not a chance. Even if Germany, France and Russia want to cut a deal, East European countries will manage to break that with US dollar support.
Everyone dies, except the absolute richest maybe 5-10 million people. That's why they don't mind it as much as everyone else.
So you think if NATO and Russia get into war, one side or the other is going to go start bombing all of Africa for ***** and giggles?
No, I just think it's human nature that a duality of militaries will form based on survival and they will believe they are opposites and people will believe their identity is defined by which of those sides they join. That would engulf much of the world in the fight. Everyone is interconnected, now more than any other large scale war.
This is an impossible poll to answer. Define "wins" In a conventional ground/air/sea campaign, NATO would wipe the floor with Russia. The Russian army is not nearly strong enough in manpower, equipment, planes, etc. to counter the USA, let alone the combined NATO forces if we went to total war. NATO bombers would level Russian supply lines. Our drone tech and bomber tech would completely annihilate their defense capabilities. And since we were not desiring occupation of Russia (I assume) there would be no need to level cities and stuff like Russia wants to do. However, they could and likely WOULD retaliate quickly with nuclear weapons. There's no doubt in mind that if a NATO army was advancing on Russia, they would quickly act to deter the effort by dropping tactical nuclear weapons on NATO positions, with the threat of a nuclear strike on a civilian target in Europe right there as well. Maybe you get lucky and the Russian military overthrows Putin before a nuclear holocaust, but if not...if the Russian military decides to fight it out because "without Russia as a world power, who needs a world?" then they could absolutely devastate the West. Yeah they'd lose, but so would we.
Preposterous. Africa and South America would be largely untouched. Asia would depend entirely on whether China was stupid.
Ukraine's admission to NATO being "non-negotiable" is a flat out lie. Diplomats already floated a 20 year promise on Ukrainian NATO membership being off the table. NATO has no desire to bring Ukraine into the fold and everyone knows it. NATO membership for Ukraine is an absolute fig leaf for an invasion that Putin has wanted for a decade. Nemtsov warned a decade ago that Putin wanted war with Ukraine and was trying to force it. Not because of NATO, but because he wanted Ukraine.
I think Putin would absolutely launch nukes before he’d cede even one inch of Russian soil to an invading force. The world just have to hope that someone close to him would put a bullet in the back of his head before that happens.
