You might be asking the wrong question. An equally valid question would be: If Russia didn’t have nukes, would it have so haphazardly invaded Ukraine? In fact

You might be asking the wrong question. An equally valid question would be: If Russia didn’t have nukes, would it have so haphazardly invaded Ukraine? In fact we have a comparative case study. In 1990 Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait. Iraq at the time didn’t have nukes. The USA and other responded by promptly invading Iraq. Now with this history in mind. Why wouldn’t NATO respond to Russian hostilities by sending their military to protect Ukrainian sovereignty if Russia didn’t have nukes. And with that in mind would Russia have engaged in this horror if it was sure of its futility. All this horrors could have been prevented if we had eliminated these weapons of terror while we had a chance. NOTE: My main point with this exercise is to provide an alternate hypothetical situation which leads to the opposite results. This is to prove a point that you cannot for certain speculate that MAD has saved lives. An equally valid hypothetical can speculate that MAD actually costs lives.