This is true, but it doesn’t answer the question of why not to simply use nuclear blackmail on such states. And the answer to that is that the US wants to limit the destruction of war. Nuclear blackmail is great, right up until someone calls your bluff. But then it helps to have conventional forces if you do not wish to have massive losses to local civilians, local infrastructure, and one’s own prestige.
The main reason USA (and other nuclear powers) don’t use nuclear blackmail is that it would end no-nuclear-proliferation regime. “Every state that can make nukes has them” is the natural word state, keeping non-proliferation requires effort.
Because most states don’t have nukes, and conventional military can be used against them.
This is true, but it doesn’t answer the question of why not to simply use nuclear blackmail on such states. And the answer to that is that the US wants to limit the destruction of war. Nuclear blackmail is great, right up until someone calls your bluff. But then it helps to have conventional forces if you do not wish to have massive losses to local civilians, local infrastructure, and one’s own prestige.
The main reason USA (and other nuclear powers) don’t use nuclear blackmail is that it would end no-nuclear-proliferation regime. “Every state that can make nukes has them” is the natural word state, keeping non-proliferation requires effort.