So...I love it when a European lectures us about our conduct....without admitting to the true History of the World.
Just because we f***ed it up when we were ascendant doesn't mean you should try to as well.
Granted....we should learn some lessons from their storied successes and try not to imitate them in our modern efforts.
Exactly.
The apparent "USA first" foreign policy is a win-lose situation, which is designed to garner conflict with non-nuclear nations. The US has no issue with that as it is (conventionally) militarily unparalleled and threatens with the enormous and expensive stick, so the non-nuclear nations have no option but to back down unless they are supported by other members of the nuclear club (which can be offset through diplomatic means). The problems occur when the non-nuclear nations become nuclear and no longer require allies. The big stick becomes fairly useless and the same policy will lead to nuclear standoff, meaning the US has to switch to a "win-win" foreign policy, which means smaller gains for the US - not desirable to the US.
It makes as much sense for the US to try to stop proliferation as it does for other nations to try to get the technology required. Neither is to blame as they are both simply acting in self-interest. It's just the reality of the situation that non-nuclear nations want nuclear weapons and nuclear nations don't want them to have them, and both for perfectly reasonable and perfectly selfish reasons.
Time is always on the side of the non-nuclear nations in these cases.