[jmnicolas]

> If I were a foreign actor with malign intent towards the US, I would be very pleased with how things are playing out.

Then you wouldn't have thought enough about it. Look at what happened when the USSR collapsed: the world became less stable and nuclear tech and scientists found their ways in unsavory countries.

There were some civil wars or frozen conflicts that are still a pain today (Transnitria, breakaway republics in Georgia, the whole Ukraine thing, and more recently Azerbaijan vs Armenia).

When the enemy has nukes you want him to be a known quantity, stable and predictable.