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You might, but NATO states don't. Nuclear retaliation is reserved for nuclear attacks, while conventional forces for conventional attacks, the conflation of which ignores how MAD interacts, and doesn't interact, with conventional deterence.
The United States also does not invade countries known to be violating nuclear proliferation, and suspected of violating nuclear proliferation, and of course those actually having nuclear weapon. Because, again, MAD.
No, the point of the globe-spanning American military is to advance American security interests for the American alliance network. The Americans do not generally invade their allies, or their enemies when the cost to the Americans is too high, or when their domestic political order has higher priorities than destroying other people.
Them not liking their odds in an AI arms race is why they would offer a treaty, and cheat, for the same reason they (and most major powers) cheat to very degrees on other limitation agreements.
Cheating is the expectation in genuinely limiting international agreements, whether it be loophole abuse, redefinition of contested items, or blanket denial.
Because we know many of the American's own citizens don't find the US Government credible, let alone many other countries, and especially the geopolitical adversaries.
Because, of course, the US has many means to cheat, and would have an even greater incentive to cheat the more other parties genuinely gave up on a potential competitive advantage / competitive parity.
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