Quote Originally Posted by Strike For The South
Hypothetical sutiation alert

..... If Iran was to luanch a nuke agianst the USA or an ally in the middle east would US nuclear retailation be accetpble?
Well, Id say the only real ally the US has in the middle east is Israel anyway... and they are more than capable of retaliating on their own.

And as already stated, the US could flatten Iran without resorting to nukes.

As to justification/acceptability of armed response with nuclear weapons in a theoretical sense...if Iran declared war on USA and launched a nuclear strike (yea right...but I digress) then of course the USA would have legitimacy to respond under the conventional 'jus ad bellum' laws of war.