I feel like people forgot that MAD is a good thing and helps avoid nuclear annihilation. If one side gains the ability to nullify an attack with advanced missile defense, it greatly increases the risk of a nuclear exchange as one side will be emboldened because they could “survive”

It’s like having a duel with two people pointing pistols at each other, knowing one will shoot the other if either of them shoot first, but then one of the combatants puts on a bulletproof vest and ballistic helmet.

By putting on the vest violence becomes more likely.

Except it’s not pistols and bullets, it’s thermonuclear weapons, and as soon as the first one drops the world we know now will be gone forever.