That would have to be one helluva big deal to warrant a nuclear weapon being launched against. As much as I didn't support it during the cold war, I can see why they existed. We had two of the world's largest nations gunning for each other. I think there might have been better ways of dealing with the Cold War, but the build up at the time helped avert a nuclear holocaust.

These days, however, with so many so-called "rogue" nations trying to build a nuclear arsenal, I think it's a bad idea for the U.S. to build up as well. If we do it, everyone else is going to want to and we're going to be aiming silos at thousands of locations on so damned many continents that it won't even be funny. While all of them just aim back at us. I really think that many of these smaller nations that want in on nuclear programs can be dissuaded through negotiation. We just have to try and be patient. We can't expect miracles, but a miracle is what we're gonna need if we use a nuke build up as a response.