“The doctrine of mutually assured destruction proposes an incredibly high-stakes test of the power of deterrence. In the Cold War, deterrence prevailed. The coming Republican presidential primary is a decidedly lower-stakes affair, but it, too, may pit two political superpowers against each other in a contest where all-out war would destroy them both.

The problem for those two would-be candidates, Jeb Bush and Mitt Romney, is that a Cold War-like equilibrium can’t hold for very long in a multi-candidate, winner-take-all primary. One of them must eventually abandon the field, and the longer it takes to determine whom, the greater the risk grows either that an insurgent will eclipse both of them or that bombs will start dropping. Romney in particular understands the importance of vanquishing rivals and consolidating the establishment vote—if he hadn’t done this early, and to great effect, in 2012, he probably would have lost the primary. The problem he faces now is that Bush will probably have more money at his disposal than anyone he’s ever defeated.

It is with this war-game scenario in mind that Bush and Romney are scheduled to meet in Utah this week—presumably in the hope of avoiding an outcome in which both men have exhausted extensive resources and the only beneficiary is someone neither of them wants atop the Republican ticket.”

Read more here: http://www.newrepublic.com/article/120828/jeb-bush-mitt-romney-meet-utah-battle-death

John Iadarola (http://www.twitter.com/jiadarola), Ben Mankiewicz (http://www.twitter.com/benmank77), and Ana Kasparian (http://www.twitter.com/anakasparian) of The Young Turks discuss.

Tell us what you think in the comment section below.