Nuclear Nightmare Nearer?

Charles Krauthammer pronounces nuclear non-proliferation a dead letter, courtesy of the West's flaccidity vis-a-vis North Korea and Iran.  The New York Sun's Eli Lake details the latest news as to North Korean - Syrian cooperation, that led to the nascent plutonium nuclear reactor which Israel destroyed last September 6; even if Syria didn't plan to try to manufacture nuclear bombs, its plant served as a way for North Korea to eventually produce weapons-grade plutonium in a remote area thought free of close aerial scrutiny.  Which leaves, Iraq having killed preventive war as a politically viable option, deterrence as our only remaining option.

If deterrence fails, the consequences of a Hiroshima-size nuke detonating on the Washington, DC Mall are summarized here in the Washington Times.  Ashton Carter proposes coping strategies for the aftermath.  One assumption Carter helps raise doubts as to is that after a single terrorist nuke is set off in an American city, we would, as soon as we find out whom (using nuclear forensics to trace), instantly retaliate.  Except that the going assumption, as Carter notes, is that such a group will have other weapons in reserve.  If they face instant annihilation (assuming we find them, what incentive have they to not set off any other devices they have?  The deterrence that likely will be our main strategy for stopping nuclear terror and sponsoring states appears a slender reed indeed.