We have nuclear weapons, and ours work. It's fine. And no country, not even Mexico, will be able to throw rockets at the US mainland so long as the US-land forces live.
If you're comfortable brushing off the risk of war just because you reason that we have the biggest guns, I think you might need a few reality checks. I’d invite you to look up the ‘shot heard round the world’ in 1775. That wasn’t supposed to be the start of a war—it was posturing, a show of force. But someone misfired, or got jumpy, and the rest is history. These things can spiral
fast.
Now imagine the implications of that when we're talking about missiles rather than muskets. And remember, those are a hell of a lot more indiscriminate.
Hell, you could even watch
WarGames (1983). Its climax famously plays out exactly that scenario, and is a striking portrayal of exactly this principle - that once someone gets jumpy, everyone follows suit, to catastrophic results if calmer heads don't manage to talk them down before things escalate. As so aptly put within the film: "The only winning move is not to play".
The mindset you’re insisting upon here assumes that your enemies
will have more restraint than you do. That they'll see your willingness to escalate and
choose not to respond in kind. But neither history nor human nature support that assumption. Especially not when the opening move shows a complete disregard for life as to put the nukes on the playing field.
It's easy to fall into the trap of thinking "we're stronger, so we'd win" - though the truth is far less concrete than it might be in a video game where simple leveling can create an almost insurmountable advantage. When you find yourself thinking this way, you should make a conscious effort to reground yourself by thinking of the actual human cost.
Yes, a person - and a country - should have principles worth defending, even at great risk. But when war is sparked by posturing and saber-rattling? That’s not risking your life for your values. That’s dismissing the cost of war while mistaking superior firepower for a magic shield - and buying into a dangerous illusion of invincibility.
And on that note, I'd also recommend watching
On the Beach (1959). I think it's actually available on YouTube right now. It's not perfectly accurate, but it's a sobering look at nuclear aftermath. At the very least, it reminds you what’s actually on the table when we act like brinksmanship as a harmless political tool. In the end nobody knows - or really cares - whose fault it was that things got so bad. They only care, and desperately try to forget, that cost was far too high, and that nobody realized it until it was too late.
And frankly, for all that I don't ever want to watch it again, I absolutely believe that
On the Beach should be a required watch for anyone who holds the responsibility of making decisions that could lead to nuclear war.