The US possesses an extraordinary capacity to destroy centralized state power from the air, but no comparable capacity to manage what follows. Because power vacuums cannot be targeted by precision munitions or mapped by satellite imagery, US strategic thinking systematically underestimates the danger they pose. If they secure weapons-usable nuclear material, the logic of nuclear deterrence itself would be broken. Destroy it, and you make resolving the nuclear threat both more urgent and effectively impossible. Meanwhile, lower-grade nuclear material could be repurposed into radiological dispersal devices (“dirty bombs”) capable of contaminating urban areas.

Source: Taipei Times March 03, 2026 17:19 UTC