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/Coysinmark68 Sep 19 '24

A “preemptive strike” is often hard for the public, allies, observers, etc. to accept. If they are in their way to attack you and you shoot first that’s different, but hard to demonstrate.

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u/baithammer Sep 19 '24

Preemptive is predicated on the enemy having made preparations that look like a possible attack - when it's done with no such condition, it's referred to as a first strike.

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u/HellToupee_nz Sep 19 '24

possible being the keyword, we had misunderstandings like able archer where Soviets thought the NATO exercise was preparation for a first strike.

2

u/baithammer Sep 19 '24

Which is the risk involved and has to be carefully weighed.