Intransigence

What is the only provocation that could bring about the use of nuclear weapons?  Nuclear weapons.  What is the priority target for nuclear weapons?  Nuclear weapons.  What is the only established defense against nuclear weapons?  Nuclear weapons.  How do we prevent the use of nuclear weapons?  By threatening the use of nuclear weapons.  And we can't get rid of nuclear weapons, because of nuclear weapons.  The intransigence, it seems, is a function of the weapons themselves.

-- Martin Amis (1949-), British novelist, essayist, and short story writer, Einstein's Monsters, "Introduction: Thinkability" (1987)