-Sir, they’ve stockpiled one hundred nuclear missiles.
-Aha! Not to worry, my friend! They’ll never fire them.
-Er, why is that?
-Because if they fire those missiles, they can be certain of our immediate retaliation.
-Right, but—
-A classic case of “mutually assured destruction.”
-Well, the thing is—
-It’s a simple principle of game theory!
-General, we only have one missile.
-That’s all we need, my friend.
-It’s not nuclear.
-It doesn’t need to be! A single well-targeted strike can wreak as much damage as a hundred atomic bombs!
-It’s not even armed with an explosive. It’s basically just a big metal football.
-Dangerous enough to destroy a house of parliament, to bring their government to its knees!
-It doesn’t have a homing system. We’d just be dropping it out of a plane.
-If our timing is precise, that won’t matter!
-With all due respect, there is basically zero chance we hit a target that small.
-They don’t have to know that, though! It’s all about deterrence!
-Sir, I just don’t think they’re scared of our big metal football.
-It’s a highly advanced military weapon!
-If they launch one hundred nuclear missiles, they are not going to be worried about our football.
-What if we strike first?
-To be honest, sir, they probably won’t even notice.