I mean, the context I saw this in definitely wasn't talking about MAD, and that wasn't what I was thinking of - this was actually in the context of the Bush administration and others since deliberately wanting to give the impression that relatively small attacks might draw a disproportionate response, e.g. 'don't risk bombing our base, small country/faction that might think we'll be proportional/merciful in our response, or we'll destroy several villages.' It's also not on the scale of overarching strategy/policy! So I think we're talking past each other there.