> So we should have let Iran have nukes? How many lives would have been lost then?

Fewer, because we would've been deterred from attacking them. Unless we decided to risk nuclear war, I guess.

US doesn't have to engage for Iran to use nukes. But of course we should prevent that from becoming a realistic scenario?

	▲	idle_zealot 5 hours ago \| parent [-]
		> US doesn't have to engage for Iran to use nukes Sure, in a purely physical sense, I suppose they could launch a nuke, triggering MAD and Israel's Samson Doctrine and ending human civilization for no reason. Currently I think Israel, the US, North Korea, and Russia have a higher (though still low) risk of doing that. In that order, by the way, though I could probably be convinced to bump Russia up higher.