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Comment by esseph

6 days ago

You still have to be willing to use the nukes. The threat has to be real or it doesn't work as a deterrent.

I think this is a situation where even if Venezuela had nukes, this still would have happened.

The choice is basically:

a. Don’t use nukes, everyone moves one rung up the ladder. b. Use nukes. Ladder is destroyed, everyone dies horribly.

Using nukes only makes sense if everyone is going to die horribly anyway. It’s an empty threat otherwise.