Who would we launch against? The norks?
Would they notice?
If we EMP’d the norks we’d also cause the South Koreans a lot of pain.
If we nuked them South Korea and Japan would get fallout as well. Are we willing to do that?
Meanwhile, every big city burns to the ground. And with them go a lot of the tech talent necessary to stage any sort of recovery. And that’s assuming the Chinese sell us the equipment we’d need to begin with.
Not all “smart” people live in a city, that is not a valid argument.
Without going into too much detail, we have the ability to destroy a city without creating radioactivity. Problem is, once we do it, everyone KNOWS we can do it, and we will face international pressure to dismantle the weapon/system. Additionally, other countries will immediately start similar programs in their country and we will find ourselves in the position of being the only one WITHOUT this system...
This weapon is really a “use once” kind of thing and I don’t think we are willing to use our one shot on this pipsqueak.