[Rick Lee]

I certainly wouldn't rule out a smuggled nuke by a terrorist group. But loose nukes have been supposedly floating around for over 15 yrs. now and none have turned up in terrorist attacks. (Read Clancy's The Sum of All Fears, ignore the movie.) We may not be able to deter those bent on suicide. But we can and should deter state actors, who can sometimes be reasoned with and who usually view regime survival as the highest goal they can achieve.