This is how the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons says about nuclear weapons:

“Nuclear weapons are the most destructive, inhumane, and indiscriminate weapons ever created. Both in the scale of the devastation they cause, and in their uniquely persistent, spreading, genetically damaging radioactive fallout, they are unlike any other weapons. A single nuclear bomb detonated over a large city could kill millions of people. The use of tens or hundreds of nuclear bombs would disrupt the global climate, causing widespread famine.”

After Hiroshima and Nagasaki, they are universally considered defensive weapons and used by a nation only to deter potential adversaries from attacking it or its vital interests. No nation has publicly threatened to attack another with nuclear weapons because first, using them is not for idle, casual talk. Second, if one nation has nuclear weapons, others must understand without a slightest doubt that it will use them if it or its vital interests are attacked. There is no need to remind them of that certainty.

Three days after his invasion of Ukraine, Mr. Putin announced on television that he ordered Russia’s nuclear forces on special combat readiness. Then his state-run media repeated his message, announcing that Russia’s entire nuclear triad had been placed on special alert, “Don’t try to frighten Russia.”

Is it a profound tactical move to inform his potential adversaries in advance that he would use his nuclear arsenal in a limited local conflict if he doesn’t get his way? That seems to imply that Mr. Putin had some thought that his military power might not be strong enough to subdue Ukraine with Russia’s conventional forces. For the leader of such a huge and powerful country as Russia, it is too careless to be true.

Or did he just issue a warning to the U.S. and NATO not to interfere with his military adventure? This must be Mr. Putin’s intention.

And it sounds like blackmail. Don’t come to Ukraine’s rescue, or I will drop a nuclear bomb (somewhere). That means Mr. Putin uses his nuclear arsenal not to deter attack on Russia but to blackmail the world.

A blackmailer sniffs his targets for vulnerability. If Ukraine fell because the world did not help for fear of Russia’s nuclear threat, you can imagine Mr. Putin sitting in his chair in his office, feet on his desk, pointing his laser pointer at a large map of Europe on a wall, and shouting orders to his underlings twenty feet away, to take Poland, the Baltic nations, Finland, Sweden, and so on, after having his threat of using nuclear weapons propagated on his media network.

It sounds lighthearted but that is the modus operandi of a blackmailer. Mr. Putin has proved it. He invaded Ukraine in 2022 without concern because in 2014 he took Crimea, and the world was quiet and timid. In 2022, the stake is bigger and in a moment of ebullience or probably cold calculation, he yelled “nuclear weapons” to make sure that the world would continue to stay quiet and timid.

Yes, he should.

The Ukraine invasion is no doubt a horrific blunder. But it is difficult to think that it was his decision alone.

Before the invasion, Vladimir Putin was considered a brilliant Russian leader. His talks and acts were reasoned. He did restructure Russia away from democratization but many, including some American officials, agreed that he did so to strengthen the Russian government to deal with terrorism. They also believed that such restructuring was compatible with Russia’s democratization process. In other words, he had reasons, good reasons, to do so. That means he was a man who could be reasoned with, not driven by emotion.

Our president George W. Bush even found him to be a good man: “I looked the man in the eye. I found him to be straightforward and trustworthy…I was able to get a sense of his soul. The man’s deeply committed to his country and the best interest of his country.”

One good result out of the Ukraine fiasco is that Mr. Putin is weakened. The Russian power structure is no longer a one man show. The disappearance from the public and reappearance of his Defense Secretary Sergey Shoygu reveals such change. Mr. Shoygu’s disappearance was no doubt Mr. Putin’s decision. But his reappearance was clearly not. He, or any leader, cannot reverse his decision by himself in a matter of days without damaging his authority.

It is better for the West to continue dealing with him than a new Russian leader, a still unknown guy who probably is also a member of the cabal deeply involved in the decision to invade Ukraine who would not have the brain and, strange enough, the temper of Mr. Putin.

The news briefing by the U.S. intelligence that Mr. Putin was deceived, or at least not given full information, by his security apparatus including his generals, is the right approach to buttress Mr. Putin’s standing with the Russian people, which is the sine qua non to keep him the leader of Russia.

But calling the invasion of Ukraine Mr. Putin’s smart move or that he is a genius or asserting (on Fox News) that our government is lying about the Ukraine invasion or lapping up (Fox News again) the Russian propaganda (fake news) that the U.S. has helped Ukraine develop bioweapons in laboratories located on the Ukraine’s soil, does not help to shore up Mr. Putin’s status. It is dangerous, weirdly pervert, unpatriotic and pathetic. It smacks of a personal agenda looking for personal benefits in blatant disregard of the U.S.’s interest and national security, and even the world’s, if Fox ever thinks about it.