and I pine for the days where I didn't see a clear and present danger of escalation towards nuclear war.

I was born after the fall of the soviet union, but even that period... I don't know if the incentives so heavily lined up to use nuclear weapons as they do now for the top leadership of the US and Israeli governments according to their politics, ideologies and vulnerabilities.

Alarmingly I don't think this will escalate past a tit for tat use of tactical nuclear weapons, the US and Israel on Iran and russia on Ukraine... or at least I don't think the people in decision making positions believe it will... which paradoxically makes escalation far more likely.

We are in an opposite position to Mutually Assured Destruction/MAD, if the US and Israel nuke Iran it puts their enemies and vassal states back in line, and if russia nukes Ukraine, that also forces Ukraine back in line and increases russia's leverage on the entire region. For the powerful, this is a potential way to indirectly establish a bargain to force their underclasses and vassal states back into more subservient positions, I am not saying this will happen, but the incentive structure is downright murderous in my opinion right now. What better way for empires to forestall multipolarity?