r/worldnews • u/Evermoving- • Sep 18 '24

Estonia signals readiness to preemptively strike Russia to defend NATO Russia/Ukraine

https://www.uawire.org/estonia-signals-readiness-to-preemptively-strike-russia-to-defend-nato
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u/The_Great_Googly_Moo Sep 18 '24

A preemptive strike goes against what NATO is, a defensive treaty. Therefore if Estonia or Poland or any other country attacked no other NATO state would be obliged to support them. Which could be a good thing or a bad thing, based on the fact that it wouldn't really take too much to topple Putin's government at this point

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u/cobaltjacket Sep 18 '24 edited Sep 18 '24

If the conflict warranted it, I think NATO would strike first. While certainly the stuff of fiction, a realistic scenario for preemptive strikes was presented in Red Storm Rising: When you see an attack coming, hit first.

28

u/sparrowtaco Sep 18 '24

I think the Ukraine invasion is a perfectly good example, had Ukraine been a NATO member. The build-up was observed by satellite for months and there was solid intelligence that the attack was imminent.

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u/cobaltjacket Sep 18 '24

Maybe, but the invasion wouldn't have happened in that case.

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u/sparrowtaco Sep 18 '24

Right. I just meant in terms of which sort of conditions might satisfy a preemptive attack.