> Other countries develop the same war kit, no one bats an eye. I’m pretty sure that every single time a country has become a “nuclear state”, it has been a hu

> Other countries develop the same war kit, no one bats an eye. I’m pretty sure that every single time a country has become a “nuclear state”, it has been a huge deal and dramatically altered the regional and global dynamics. Only 10 countries have ever developed nuclear weapons (South Africa giving up theirs, leaving 9 total today). The US developed the bomb, and it was a pretty big deal (for Japan and the world). In response, the USSR developed one and nuclear holocaust became the focus of the Cold War; with the UK and France developing them as well to counter the USSR and China developing them to counter the US and “West”. South Africa developed them to counter Soviet backed Angola, then gave them up after the collapse of the USSR and the end of apartheid. India developed them to dominate Pakistan, and in response, Pakistan developed their own. Israel developed them so that it would never lose as arms race against a combined Arab country adversary (also part of the reason why they are so opposed to Iran becoming a nuclear state). Several former soviet states gave up the nuclear weapons that the USSR housed in their countries after it collapsed, including Ukraine. If they had not, do you really think Russia wouldn’t have “batted an eye” about that when making its decisions to invade? The idea that nuclear weapons development has ever been anything but world changing is just not true.