Article 5

PoD tentative; not before 2005 and not after 2007.

Introduction
The new millenium has been a disaster. There is simply no way around it.

17 million people have died due to human violence this decade. That is the conservative estimate. The liberal estimate is substantially higher.

In 2007, the Russian Federation invaded Ukraine, following a popular uprising against KRemlin-puppet Victor Yanukovich. The Western world levied intense economic sanctions against Russia. In 2008, Russia invaded Georgia. Once again, the West levied sanctions and beefed up NATO presence in Eastern Europe.

And then, in November 2008, Russia moved troops into Eastern Estonia. Portions of Estonia had a large percentage of ethnic-Russian speakers left over from the days of the Soviet union, and Russia used this as a pretext for their irredentism. The United States was most displeased. The same year John McCain was elected the 44th president of the United States.

Estonia invoked Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty. Polish, German, French, American, British, Czech, Romanian, Hungarian, and Dutch troops massed in Western Ukraine,. Border skirmishes were frequent. On December 15th NATO troops invaded eastern Ukraine and the USMC II MEF landed in Estonia. Vladimir Putin authorized the use of tactical nuclear weapons in Ukraine on December 30th, the same day that Polish troops reached Donetsk. The Russian army had been battered, taking over 17,000 casualties in the space of a few weeks. The Russian air force was a shadow of its former self, and Russian military bases as far east as Smolensk were bombed daily.

Three Russian 200kt Kh-55 cruise missiles were deployed near Donetsk over the next six hours. 34,000 NATO troops and 3,000 Russian troops were killed, along with over 50,000 Ukrainian civilians.

The US responded by deploying its 340kt B61 gravity bombs on Russain formations near the Ukrainian border. 45,000 Russian troops were killed in the strikes, along with 35,000 Russian and Ukrainian civilians.

Tactical nuclear weapon deployment continued into the morning of January 1st, with an estimated 600,000 additional casualties. That morning a Russian Delta IV SSBN in the north Atlantic launched its 16 R-29RMU Sineva ballistic missiles at major population centers in the United States. The US immediately retaliated with a counterforce strike involving the entirety of its arsenal. The Russians did not retaliate. Between 0607 and 0614 GMT New York, Washington DC, Chicago, Atlanta, Philadelphia, and Boston were all annihilated. Multiple military targets were also destroyed. NATO was dissolved the following morning. The former NATO member states tried to contact the Russians for formal peace talks, but the Russian government, it seemed, had ceased to exist.

The Russian nuclear arsenal, military, and leadership was effectively annihilated by the American retaliatory strike. It is still unknown why the Russians only launched 16 missiles; many believe the Russian submarine to have been rogue, others say that the Russian strategic forces command structure didn’t function properly, still others say both. What is clear is that the world’s two predominate superpower have drunk each other under the table, and they aren’t getting up anytime soon.

The United States of America is once again a misnomer - 24 of her states have succeeded since the violent conclusion of what is today called the Great War. The Russian Federation is a lawless wasteland where the remnants of the government control only a few isolated pockets of civilization. The global economy is in a deep depression, with no recovery in sight.

America’s former allies are uncertain and fearful. South Korea, with no American military commitment to defend it from it’s psychotic and now emboldened northern neighbor has begun to instituted universal conscription for females. Japan is remilitarizing faster than Germany in the late thirties. Iraq is and Afghanistan are on the brink of collapse sans coalition troops. India and Pakistan seem ready to up the number of casualties from nuclear weapons. Europe has unified its military command structured under the EU, and most European nations have introduced conscription to quell the growing unrest that is an inevitable product of economic insolvency.

The world is a very dangerous place. But, the economy seems to have finally bottomed out, and the post-nuclear winters are finally starting to get shorter. It’s still a terrible time to live in Russia or the American northeast, but the only place to go is up, right?

Content
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