] If all nuclear weapons vanished tomorrow, the world's
] current military situation would not be affected one
] whit. The U.S.A. would still be military top boss.
] Yet we'd be much less likely to wake up one morning
] to find Paris or Washington missing.

This is just plain ignorance. Without nukes for instance, whats to stop a billion Chinese from storming the far east of Russia, which is resource rich and EMPTY? The United States has enough formidable conventional power that nukes aren't really neccesary. For a nation to openly attack the US is paramount to suicide. Other nuclear nations cannot boast such conventional power, and nuclear weapons still act as a deterrant for aggression against these states.

Ten Technologies That Deserve to Die