It reminds us of the De Klerk government's dismantling their entire inventory of six nuclear weapons (plus one under construction) under the auspices of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

How and why these weapons were developed is another story, or two.  World opinion was happily supportive of South Africa's 1989 denuclearization, after the fact.  Global decision-makers, long aware of South Africa's capability in this deadly arena, were actively interested in no nukes for the new South Africa.

De Klerk opposed nuclear weapons, and his opposition was not completely shared by South Africa's military bureaucracy.  In his own words, he "overrode that opposition" and never doubted that he was doing the right thing.

A country societally and politically divided, in a world similarly divided, is not a good place for nuclear weapons.  What if, instead of a couple of hours of unarmed riot at the Capitol, American tensions and divisions erupted in a far more significant and more pervasive way?