Mutually assured destruction not so assured anymore?

I think so.

1. Someone can sneak a small WMD into your country, perhaps in pieces, detonate it, and remain anonymous, denying involvement if accused. So why fear reprisals?

2. The Soviets and the Chinese, for all their faults, were not suicidal madmen like some of today's terrorists.

3. Terrorist organizations may not even have a return address to direct retaliation to.

4. The advance of technology continues to bring more and more powerful and affordable PCs within more peoples' reach, and the same is true of WMD technology.

The dynamics now are very different from when a few more or less rational countries possessed such weapons. I think MAD is not much applicable any more.

I fully agree with you Brandon.

There are also those missing nuclear briefcases from the USSR.