Dictatorships thrive on fear

All. Even the Saudis.

Obviously taking on most of the planet is not very practical, so the usual solution is to select a short-list targets based on some other criteria - say financial interests.

These financial interests might even conceivably be so narrow, they pivot around one person's bank account. It's all legitimate and part-and-parcel of the war on oppression

We can only use them in retaliation though by which point we are all screwed.

I wouldn't say this is anywhere near exclusive to dictatorships, all sorts within the political sphere attempt to get people to fear the consequences of not doing what they advocate ....... one example which we've discussed in recent days was Cameron's request to Obama to put the frighteners on the British public by threatening that Britain would be relegated to 'the back of the queue' ..... and of course the whole scheme, which Obama and his team had come over to Britain to contribute to, was aptly dubbed 'Project Fear' .... an almost total concentration on painting a lurid picture of the horrible things that would befall us if we dared vote to ignore our Government's advice not to leave the EU.

Did it fail, or did it get 'Remain' closer to winning than it otherwise would have ? ..... whichever, it certainly didn't put politicians off, as we saw when Covid made an appearance ... and the various experts and Psychologists brought in to advise on how best to instill fear into the public, as a means to get them to comply on mass with Government dictats was superbly laid out and explained by Laura Dodswoth in her book. 

If the British public aren't happy about the vast amounts of their taxes being used to fund one side in a conflict in the part of the world that seems very distant to them, then it's a good dose of personal fear that they need in order to keep them in line ...... 'if Putin beats Ukraine, he'll take on Poland next (not that'll he'd necessarily need to leave Ukraine to do that) and start his military march through Europe ...... there's no end to the territory he's intending to take ...dontcha know that guy is a reincarnation of Hitler !!! ... be afraid ...be very afraid !'

The Fear card gets played by regimes the world over, and with Saudi Arabia having swapped sides and joined BRICS ..... they're definitely the bad guys now, as Vinny confirms.



                    

Only against a direct nuclear attack on the US.
America isn't going nuclear winter if Vlad uses tactical nukes in Ukraine.

Article 5 wont matter much in those circumstances. The purpose of article 5 is to deter such attacks. Once something like that happens it's likely every man for himself (90%).

Itt's the 10% possibility that it holds that acts as a deterrent.


I'm just being realistic...it's a bit dismal to think about.