> Many countries can credibly claim to have a "No First Strike" policy; the US is not one of them
Many as in two: China and India [1]. And "credibly" is doing a lot of work there. If America began a strategic bombing campaign of China's military, economic and population centers with conventional weapons fired off aircraft carriers, I find it ridiculous to imagine China would refuse to ever nuke a CVN.
Sorry, I wasn't sufficiently clear: even countries which currently are not nuclear-capable may become so in the future, and all of them will easily have a more credible NFU policy than the country which used Fat Man and Little Boy.
Many as in two: China and India [1]. And "credibly" is doing a lot of work there. If America began a strategic bombing campaign of China's military, economic and population centers with conventional weapons fired off aircraft carriers, I find it ridiculous to imagine China would refuse to ever nuke a CVN.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_first_use#Countries_against...