As some people apparently cannot get over how clever they are for taking my quote out of context, I feel it is necessary to show what I was originally responding to:

Quote Originally Posted by Red Harvest
If it was from a fairly distributed terrorist group with no solid connection to a govt, then no...not after the first one at least. However, that is somewhat unlikely as a scenario. A nuke is not something a terrorist group is likely to get their hands on and be able to successfully detonate without the backing of a nuclear nation. So if it was tied directly to a specific nation, that nation would get nuked rather soon, and not in any small way. After all, you have to make them unable to strike again, and make an example of them at the same time.

A nuke attack would make it a survival issue for the U.S. At that point it becomes, "Do we stand here and let them kill us piecemeal, or do we kill ALL of those who back/support this attack?" You don't want to put a nuclear superpower into a corner like that.
Crazed Rabbit