For one who carries himself as a military expert and a redblooded American, I'm surprised.

 You assumed I meant a massive countervalue strike. That is precisely what I am trying to avoid. US preemption in the scenario I described would be a limited, counterforce strike aimed at Russian subs, mobile launchers, silos, etc the moment the Russians put these forces to a higher alert level, focusing on eliminating these assets far from population centers and using conventional counterforce assets where possible. This dissuades them from using the nuclear threat so casually in the future, and forces them to a minimum deterrence posture. More likely however, our having this capability to shift the balance of strategic forces enormously in our own favor irrevocably would prevent both the invasion of Estonia and the liberal use of the nuclear threat, preventing us from ever having to use that capability. But we must be WILLING to.