Interesting. Who exactly has made that claim? Richard Perle? Why don't you get serious?
Imagine an entire U.S. Navy carrier battle group on patrolling the Perian Gulf. Now blink your eyes and they're gone. Over seven thousand man and women vaporized. Imagine a nuclear warhead exploding over the oil fields of Saudi Arabia. Now imagine the entire world economy plunged into a depression because those oil fields are rendered useless for the next hundred years due to radioactivity.
Now imagine Saddam throwing his nukes or launching a biological attack at Isreal, figuring he can wipe them off the map before they have the chance to retaliate. There's only problem, they keep there nukes in hardened bunkers. Whoever is left won't hestitate to return the favor to Saddam. The initial blasts will kill millions. The region will shut down, oil production will screech to a halt, and the economic tidal wave will make the Great Depression look like a hiccup. Saddam pasttime is to watch his prisoners on tape being tortured! I will not put anything past him.