Nuclear war over Crimea was IMO never in the cards, but things could have gotten extremely ugly if Kiev had sent a mechanized brigade down to clear out the Russians. The Russian forces were light infantry with next to no heavy weapon support - they would have been massacred. And then we would have had Russian tanks in Kiev in a couple of days.

Of course, to get from there to nuclear war would require something like Poland joining the war on Ukraine's side (which is insane even by the standards of the lunatics running the show in Warsaw) and the French or Americans deciding to back Poland. Which would be out of the question unless Russia were to actually cross the border and not withdraw. Which would have been unusually stupid of Putin.

- Jake

Friends come and go. Enemies accumulate.