“For more than 60 years, most Americans have thought of nuclear weapons as an all-or-nothing game. The only way to win is not to play at all, we believed, because any use of nukes will lead to Armageddon. That may no longer be the game our opposition is playing. As nuclear weapons proliferate to places that might not share our reluctance to use them in small numbers, however, the US military may face a ‘second nuclear age’ of retail Armageddon for which it is utterly unprepared.”
Source: No Longer Unthinkable: Should US Ready For ‘Limited’ Nuclear War? « Breaking Defense