This is well-trodden ground, though perhaps long enough ago that younger people have never heard it. A lot of stuff that sounds really sweet and nice and moral turns into nightmares if you play it out in the real world. Advertising to the world that you won&#x27;t strike back even if you are wiped out is, over the long term, an invitation to be wiped out. Of course if you want to signal your morality to certain types by valuing your own people at zero that may sound better than striking back, but you&#x27;re still in the end advocating for millions of deaths, whether you meant to or not. If nothing else, allow me to appeal to your own naked self-interest in pointing out you&#x27;d be one of them.<p>It is ironic, but by taking a strong &quot;We will strike back&quot; stance, you decrease the chances of ever having to strike.<p>On the flip side, some of the well-trod ground is now out of date, too. Arguments about how maybe we could try non-proliferation instead become irrelevant as nuclear weapons become relatively speaking easier and easier to acquire due to advancing and dispersing technological sophistication.<p>Anyhow, upshot, if you&#x27;re <i>serious</i> about thinking through the issues this turns out to be a really challenging stage to get up and morally preen at people on. It&#x27;s very easy to end up advocating a strategy that kills billions of people while preening. It may be unpleasant to you, but you do in fact have to <i>think</i>. Hard. With neither rose-tinted glasses nor excessive cynicism. The easy answers don&#x27;t work. The sweet answers don&#x27;t work.