Comparing rival first-strike damages is logically meaningless since both cannot strike first

Evidence

Both sides cannot simultaneously strike first, and these capabilities can never be matched against each other. The degree of first-strike capability that the United States needed was not a function of the damage that the Soviets could have done if they had struck first. — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 2606

Categorization

• QUESTION: This is a strong logical point: worth checking how deterrence theorists (Schelling, Jervis) formalize why comparison-by-counterfactual is a category error in war.