You say that as if it's a sign of instability or something.
How do you think we would/should react if Iraq killed "any group of Americans" from "just" one poison gas scud? "No matter how strongly" some third party nation urged us "to use restraint"?
We have a predictable pattern. Maybe the word bonkers threw you off. By that I mean very primal distress directly linked to survival.
It's the many unpredictable things that give us reason to discuss this now. Once this process begins, I think it will follow a somewhat predictable military route. Stability may not be a keyword on any analytical level....or the usual "great nothing" may happen.