[dragonwriter]

MAD doesn't have a point, MAD is a fact observed, not an actively sought state (it is, in fact, the result of opponents with sufficiently similar capacity each seeking unilateral overmatch capacity, and neither being willing to sacrifice its own total destruction capability while the other retains it.)

[ryandvm]

MAD also assumes a level of rationality that I am starting to doubt exists in many world leaders...

[namaria]

Nonsense. The concept of MAD had been discussed in the literature for nearly a century before the invention of nuclear weapons.