while russian conventional forces have considerable power to overrun most european forces, the possibility of using nuclear theater weapons is always a risk to any conventional adversary, hence, the main reason that the soviet union several times threatened, but never consumated its' threat.....nato has never had forces equal in number to soviet/russian forces.....but nato always had sufficient deterrent in the form of theater (limited megatonage) to stifle soviet ambitions.....either over-powering conventional or theater nuc lear power can be used without compromising the use of strategic nuclear power (large megatonage) to destroy cities and nations....the key is timing....once an invasion has commenced and forces are intermingled, theater nuclear force becomes problematic.....the satellite photos of the russians massing tanks etc. reminded me of all fighter planes that were sitting on the ramp at Pearl Harbor in WW2....same concept ....a theater nuke would have taken them all out, and still would render the staging areas of the russians unusable....will to use them is still the question....do the people that control the nuke button feel personally threatened ?....the use of theater nukes doesn't mean automatic escalation ....how long until russian control of the ukraine emboldens them to go for Latvia, and then the rest....when will Germany decide they don't want to be over-run by russia ? the last time, I don't think they liked it, do they still have the memory of the rape of Berlin ?