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This is trivially falsifiable. We didn't nuke Afghanistan after 9/11.

(We did nominally succeed in regime change in the country that didn't attack us, though...)

> Afghanistan after 9/11.

It wasn't Afghanistan (as a nation) that directly carried out 9/11. The government did have close ties with Al Qaeda and sheltered it though.

That's the point. Nuclear weapons don't deter a group like Al Qaeda.

Yes they don't, mostly because it's a relatively small group of individuals dispersed in a huge country. The same cannot be said of the Iranian government.

You said

> An attack on American soil could be met with a literally nuclear response against Iran or whoever perpetrated it.

Al Qaeda is in the "whoever" category that you claimed would be met with a nuclear response.

Wiping out the Iranian government will only strenghten the IRGC and other rabid anti US Iranian groups politically. As demonstrated by the recent US strikes that killed Ali Khamenei, wiped out senior Iranian leadership and that girs' school.

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