The US doesn’t differentiate between those two cases, and thus a “tactical” strike from the Russian pov would lead to a massive escalation. Putin should rememb

The US doesn’t differentiate between those two cases, and thus a “tactical” strike from the Russian pov would lead to a massive escalation. Putin should remember that US doctrine explicitly approves massive nuclear first strikes when a situation appears to be escalating to nuclear conflict. Plus the US actually has thousands of mission-ready nukes and only two cities to hit.