# Why should I care if country X gets a nuclear weapon? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [April 30, 2026, 10:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-should-i-care-if-country-x-gets-a-nuclear-weapon/1029662 "2026-04-30T10:35:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2026, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-should-i-care-if-country-x-gets-a-nuclear-weapon/1029662/21 "2026-04-30T15:34:37Z")
True. But evil entities might well like to steal or buy just one. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2026, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-should-i-care-if-country-x-gets-a-nuclear-weapon/1029662/22 "2026-04-30T15:38:03Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > So the more countries that obtain nuclear weapons (particularly ones with unstable, totalitarian, or extremist governments) the higher the chance of that happening IMHO. I’m quite sure that North Korea would deploy them the minute the dictator got in a snit about anything. Any country with an unstable leadership is at risk of doing that. I’m more than a bit worried about The Orange Menace doing so. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2026, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-should-i-care-if-country-x-gets-a-nuclear-weapon/1029662/23 "2026-04-30T15:45:32Z")
> [@DPRK](#): > > Well, yes, but, in that case, (e.g.,) why do you need a nuke to level the Bandar Abbas naval base/port? There are really no other options to take it out? And what do you do after Odessa gets nuked later the same day? I never said it was a _good_ idea, just that it’s possible without causing a global nuclear holocaust. And this is more true in the post-Cold War era than ever before. And yeah, tactical nuclear weapons are problematic, in that due to the magnitude of their effects, they’re inherently strategic, even when employed in a tactical fashion. > [@DPRK](#): > > I am not in the War College gaming this out on a regular basis, but some exercises in the past (e.g., [Proud Prophet](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proud_Prophet)) had the “limited nuclear war” ending up with half a billion people killed. You sure you want to roll the dice on that? Especially with multiple countries in the mix, as posited? Look at it this way; if India and Pakistan seriously got into it and one nuked the other, I doubt that any of the US, Russia, France, UK, NK, China or Israel would do anything outside of diplomatic/PR type actions. There’s literally nothing in it for any of them to intervene militarily or escalate, especially using nuclear weapons. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2026, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-should-i-care-if-country-x-gets-a-nuclear-weapon/1029662/24 "2026-04-30T15:47:38Z")
As the others said, why would Iran immediately launch at Israel? It would mean the swift end of Iran as a country. ---
**Author:** ![griffin1977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2026, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-should-i-care-if-country-x-gets-a-nuclear-weapon/1029662/25 "2026-04-30T15:51:12Z")
> [@Grrr](#): > > 70 plus years of mutually assured destruction seems to have worked We _barely survived_ 70 years of mutually assured destruction with only 2 primary belligerents (and a very low number of secondary minor nuclear powers). Every new nuclear power makes the chances of surviving the next 70 years without a nuclear war less (not that the chance are zero even if no new nuclear powers entry the game) ---
**Author:** ![Frodo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frodo/32/302_2.png) [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2026, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-should-i-care-if-country-x-gets-a-nuclear-weapon/1029662/26 "2026-04-30T15:53:39Z")
This, basically. ---
**Author:** ![griffin1977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2026, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-should-i-care-if-country-x-gets-a-nuclear-weapon/1029662/27 "2026-04-30T16:03:53Z")
> [@bump](#): > > Look at it this way; if India and Pakistan seriously got into it and one nuked the other Or looking another way. Surely the same factors (MAD, etc) that led the US and USSR to develop massive, world destroying, amounts of nukes will sooner or later lead Indian and Pakistan (or Iran and Israel, or Indian and China, etc) to do the same. And thats a very scary place to be. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2026, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-should-i-care-if-country-x-gets-a-nuclear-weapon/1029662/28 "2026-04-30T16:37:04Z")
A lot of the truly huge warhead numbers of the 1960s were due to the low accuracies (and reliabilities) of then-current delivery systems. Then multiply that by the very large size of the US & USSR, and add in the long distances between the belligerents and suddenly a few thousand was barely enough. As guidance and reliability improved the numbers could be cut to a tenth or a hundreth as many & still have the same likelihood of overall success as before. And here the USA & Russia sit. Neither India nor Pakistan need anywhere near 1000 modern warheads on modern missiles to credibly comprehensively destroy the other. So there is no impetus for either of them to develop those sorts of numbers. Where things get instable is when you consider a three-way race, not a two-way race. For concreteness assume USA, Russia, and China, but you can certainly construct other groupings of countries with similar dynamics. If Russia and USA start from approximate parity, then whichever side China allies with now has overwhelming superiority, while the solo country now has ~twice as many targets to contend with. If the solo tries to build their way out of that deficit, each of the other two are feeling increasingly insecure; they only win as a team, not as a solo themselves. And how much can they trust their teammate with Armageddon on the line? I can certainly imagine a MAGAful authoritarian USA that functionally resembles Russia or China such that all three are militaristic imperialist powers ruled by strongmen. Each of whom doesn’t trust the other two. And no two of which are more natural allies than any other combo. All three are avowedly klepto-capitalist, with only vague nods in the direction of their legacy political / economic systems, be that Marxism, Maoism, or Liberal Democracy. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2026, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-should-i-care-if-country-x-gets-a-nuclear-weapon/1029662/29 "2026-04-30T18:10:02Z")
> [@Cheesesteak](#): > > Like North Korea, for example? The North Korean regime is fairly sane in a lot of ways. Their goal is to stay in power. They know if they lose power, the leaders will be tortured, imprisoned and executed. If they stay in power they get to live lives of luxury and unlimited power. The issue is North Korea also knows it can inflict so much pain and suffering on other nations, that they know other nations won’t declare all out war on them. And as time builds, the amount of pain and suffering North Korea can inflict keeps growing because they get more and more nuclear weapons, and more and more long range ballistic missiles. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2026, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-should-i-care-if-country-x-gets-a-nuclear-weapon/1029662/30 "2026-04-30T18:13:40Z")
> [@bump](#): > > Look at it this way; if India and Pakistan seriously got into it and one nuked the other, I doubt that any of the US, Russia, France, UK, NK, China or Israel would do anything outside of diplomatic/PR type actions. There’s literally nothing in it for any of them to intervene militarily or escalate, especially using nuclear weapons. What could possibly go wrong giving nuclear weapons to two countries that hate each other and believe in reincarnation? ---
**Author:** ![Railer13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/railer13/32/9742_2.png) [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2026, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-should-i-care-if-country-x-gets-a-nuclear-weapon/1029662/31 "2026-04-30T18:22:43Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > The issue is North Korea also knows it can inflict so much pain and suffering on other nations Other than South Korea and, to a lesser extent, Japan, which nations have been the target of the DPRK? ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2026, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-should-i-care-if-country-x-gets-a-nuclear-weapon/1029662/32 "2026-04-30T18:24:55Z")
> [@Railer13](#): > > Other than South Korea and, to a lesser extent, Japan, which nations have been the target of the DPRK? The US. They have missiles that can reach the US now. ---
**Author:** ![Railer13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/railer13/32/9742_2.png) [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2026, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-should-i-care-if-country-x-gets-a-nuclear-weapon/1029662/33 "2026-04-30T18:29:32Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > They have missiles that can reach the US now. But they haven’t actually attacked the US, have they? And they certainly know what will happen if they do attack the US. And that won’t be good for them. ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2026, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-should-i-care-if-country-x-gets-a-nuclear-weapon/1029662/34 "2026-04-30T18:41:12Z")
Well if you’re in a position to make the decision to nuke another country, I would say this iteration of life is a about as good as it’s ever going to get as far as reincarnation goes. Thus there is a strong incentive to hold on to it. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2026, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-should-i-care-if-country-x-gets-a-nuclear-weapon/1029662/35 "2026-04-30T19:52:16Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > What could possibly go wrong giving nuclear weapons to two countries that hate each other and believe in reincarnation? If you replace “reincarnation” with “afterlife”, you get both the standard Christian USA true believer and the standard Russia Orthodox Christian true believer. None of those folks would ever decide they are doing god’s work by destroying those _other_ wicked people, and will be rewarded in heaven for their good deeds. Naah, couldn’t be. My point isn’t that you’re wrong about the dangers of nukes in irrational religious / spiritual hands. I agree 100% with your assessment of those risks. It’s that IMO you’re casting your religious / spiritual AKA fantasy-driven net far too narrowly. ---
**Author:** ![Ancient\_Nerd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed655f/32.png) [@Ancient\_Nerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ancient_Nerd)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2026, 7:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-should-i-care-if-country-x-gets-a-nuclear-weapon/1029662/36 "2026-05-01T07:41:23Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Where things get instable is when you consider a three-way race, not a two-way race. Playing Risk long ago as a teenager, a three way game tended to remain peaceful. If one player started anything, the other two would join forces to resist. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2026, 9:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-should-i-care-if-country-x-gets-a-nuclear-weapon/1029662/37 "2026-05-01T09:37:37Z")
> [@bump](#): > > Slightly different note; I’m surprised they haven’t tried chemical weapons of some kind yet. Official Israeli policy is that it does not differentiate between nonconventional weapons (NBC or WMD or whatever you call them), and that it will respond to a chemical or biological attack exactly the same way it would respond to a nuclear attack. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2026, 9:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-should-i-care-if-country-x-gets-a-nuclear-weapon/1029662/38 "2026-05-01T09:51:17Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > As the others said, why would Iran immediately launch at Israel? It would mean the swift end of Iran as a country. Will it, though? The Iranian government is not suicidal - in fact, it’s rational, pragmatic and brutal. Iran is a big country with a big population; Israel is not. They may believe that they _can_ survive a nuclear exchange, in which case, sacrificing 10, 20, 30 million Iranians could be an acceptable price to pay in order to eliminate their enemy once and for all. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2026, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-should-i-care-if-country-x-gets-a-nuclear-weapon/1029662/39 "2026-05-01T12:08:51Z")
But isn’t an existing Israel much more useful to Iranian hardliners to drum up hatred and redirect blame for internal issues? Kind of like how an existing Iran is more useful for Netanyahu (which, IIRC, you’ve said yourself a few years ago)? ---
**Author:** ![DeadTreasSecretaries](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/deadtreassecretaries/32/4817_2.png) [@DeadTreasSecretaries](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeadTreasSecretaries)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2026, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-should-i-care-if-country-x-gets-a-nuclear-weapon/1029662/40 "2026-05-01T12:15:09Z")
At least a large segment of Iran’s regime are true believers. It’s part of why a Venezuela-style coup wasn’t possible there. I think they realize that nuking Israel would be decimate their own country - are they true believers to tgat degree? I don’t think so. Especially because I think they ultimately believe that god will make them victorious and they won’t have commit mass suicide to get to that point. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-should-i-care-if-country-x-gets-a-nuclear-weapon/1029662.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-should-i-care-if-country-x-gets-a-nuclear-weapon/1029662.md?page=3)