Its a standard strategy, that has been in place for a long time.
Its also was an option in Europe with massive Soviet Tank Armies, crossing the Fulda Gap, we respond with Tactical Nuclear Weapons, since we cannot stop all the Soviet Tanks.
The difference is, we are doing a SPREAD pattern to hurt a culture that is not necessarilly associated with a single country.
This is a hint, for the ears of Terrorists , it could be psyops, but I'm sure the point was made before, on back channels to the right Muslim ears.
And if the Terrorist try it, (Nuclear Terror Attack against one of our Cities), the response should be unlimited total options open battle.
All options open.
Where did you get that?
Remember from debates on this in 9/01 that Israel's Nuclear Weapon program is called "Project Samson" ..nothing like a good name like that to get them wondering.
If we are attacked, Congress (including Tancredo) along with the White House didn't do squat to stop it. Al-Qaeda has no nukes, or they wouldn't be wasting everyones time trying to oneupmanship McGyver with backpack bombs triggered with Nokia cellphones.