Quote Originally Posted by nreggie454 View Post
While I agree for the most part, I disagree with the aspect of a nuclear stalemate with middle-eastern extremists. They are not officially affiliated with any country, so unless we wanted to look like even bigger assholes to the rest of the world, we could not retaliate with nuclear weapons if a dirty bomb were set off in the US. We would escalate our anti-terrorism troops, but it would still be an effort to limit civilian casualties which rules out the usage of nuclear weapons.
It all depends on if the terrorists could be linked to government funding of course, but considering how we frequently trace terrorist funding back to governments(allegedly, at least) the chance of us responding with a nuke could be more than you think. Also, you have to consider the situation. If the US is nuked the retaliation will be fierce, decisions might be made too quickly. I honestly think every nuke on Earth should be wiped out, their existence is absolutely pointless.