Hand grenades', we don't need no stinking Hand grenades'

 

I heard a nasty news worthy rumor.  It was that Russia and or Ukraine, have threatened each other with a nuclear strike if the other doesn't back off.  This was aired on the heals of the largest nuclear power plant in Europe being shelled by both or one of the parties at war in the region.  

Now, I'm not 100 percent sure how that would play out in Europe, but I can guarantee that it would effect the rest of the world.  The first warning came in the threat of a possible melt down of Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant.  This plant has 6 cooling towers that work independently of the others.  So, it is possible to shut down sections of the plant and still have one or two sections operating.  When rockets and heavy arms are flying by I'm not sure running any part of the plant is a good idea. 

The Russians had control of the facility when they finally conceded to having members of the Nuclear Regulatory Committee inspect the plant.  Russian officials claimed it was operational and not in danger.  The committee members came back with another observation, "The Facility is indeed in danger of becoming a toxic scar upon the face of that part of Europe."  

After the Nuclear Regulatory Committee published the report and released it to the press, a joint operation of both Russian operators, and Ukrainian operators began shutting down the facility.  This is not as easy as it sounds.  It seems that when a Nuke plant goes operational there are several steps that have to be taken to safely shut it down, and shutting it down doesn't necessarily mean it's shut off.  Radioactive rods are always radioactive regardless of use, off or not.  This does not give me a warm fuzzy feeling.

Russia made the first threat of a nuclear strike.  Weather they were just barking nobody knows, but ignoring it would be a mistake.  Then Ukraine made and interesting threat.  They threatened to lobe short range tactical nuclear weapons over the border.  Russia backed off, and Ukraine has remained on alert.  Ukraine has some of the worlds nastiest arsenal.  This stayed with them after the initial split from Russia. 

This past week Ukraine has made several surprise attacks and pushed much of Russia's fighting machine out of their territory.   What will come of this, who knows?

I am familiar with Combat Engineering.  I know what can happen unexpectedly after a plan is put into place.  There are always outcomes that the Engineer forgot to account for.  This percent of error has always been worked into our tactics, that is the United States.  Shhh, this is a known secret, but we Americans trained the Ukrainian Army.  We gave them some pretty cool weapons, and tech that would make your toes curl.  It seems to me that we are witnessing a minor probability if Russia's Warsaw Pact ever decided to play war with NATO.  In my opinion, they would die...

Peace and Balance,

John