The sheer cost of spooling up enough hardware and paying for the electricity to run it.

That's literally the entire point of proof of work.

Then hard forks would never happen, right?

I'd rather that happen to my country's wealth than have it bombed out of existence.

Seems like a non sequitur and moreover a false dilemma.

If the choice is between having my country's wealth destroyed by military invasion, versus being destroyed by someone mining blocks somewhere, I'd take the latter. You asked, not me.

I'm still not quite seeing the argument. Your country could also be bombed out of existence in order to seize or destroy its hashing power. I really don't see how bitcoin being "backed by math" saves you there.

It doesn't, obviously. But that's not what you were asking.

Now I'm curious about what I was asking!