>>13404347>>13404367We build and keep our nuclear arms as up to date as possible but air gapped to hell and back with an overabundance of protocol for handling them not to use them literally, but to metaphorically saber rattle at others to get them to fall in line. The threat of nuclear destruction is qualitatively and quantitatively written into stone based on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Factoring in all the advancements and interconnection globalization and computing has unlocked, and the damage from a strike is amplified a magnitude order or greater.
Using nukes to end WWII collapsed Japan's economy, but the rest of the world's economy didn't feel it. If you used a nuke today, the fear and uncertainty that will generate, could very easily trigger the next market crash. At point which, yeah, you've made a military base in some foreign country your citizens don't give two shits about into a crater, but then your economy is literally in freefall; the S&P 500 just shaved of 200 dollars off its value, people are running to the banks to pull all their money because you've set the stage for the next BIG WAR.
The victory is Pyrrhic. It's kinda like some guy is choking you, so you take your 9mm and blow off your own jaw so that the bullet deflects off one of your titanium teeth and penetrates the throat of the guy behind you, killing him as a result.
