Shame... SHAME...
No, I think you can see now that there is no such requirement. Not even close.
I will, however, concede your point, and any other obvious points you wish to make, that Russia and China are fully armed nuclear powers and we'd better be careful about attacking them. But let's assume, for sake of argument, that the brains in the Pentagon won't go full Alzheimer's on us and forget them.
The question remains, how do we prevent that day arriving when our enemies can fly stealthy drones over our heads? If you know a way other than utter destruction of these regimes, I'm all ears. Something like the fall of the Soviet Union is not utter destruction and is obviously insufficient.
I'll grant you that the Taliban is not Afghanistan. But Russia and China refer to nations, not regimes. What do you think I'm supposed to assume you when you call for their utter and merciless destruction?
Let us assume we "utterly destroy" the present regimes in these countries, but do not exterminate the populations.
Do you have any logical reason at all to believe whatever regimes replace them would not resent the "utter and merciless destruction?"
Which of course would put us back to where we are now.
The Romans and Mongols had the right idea with regard to enemies. There are only two ways to deal with them that don't pile up trouble for the future.
Exterminate them.
Or turn them into friends.
Of course the second is not something we get to decide on our own. The enemy may not WANT to be our friend.