Interesting post. I just finished watching "The Sum of All Fears" a couple of days ago, dealing with the issue of such an attack.
First, I agree with a previous post, that a nuke that filled the back of a truck could certainly take out a large city.
No, the idea of Armeggedon would never have come into my mind.
I sure hope that I never see something like that in my lifetime. I am in my early 30's and want to live to be an old man.
I also agree with a previous post that other nations would likely not care if we were to strike back, given the conditions of the first post. Other nations certainly saw the destruction of what happened on 9/11, and there was not too much crap given us about wanting to strike back.
I think big nations like the US, Russia, etc, know and realize the power and destruction of a nuke, and they respect that. I do not believe that there are going to be a bunch of countries suddenly shooting nukes all over. The ones that we have to worry about are the lunatics like Saddam, and Bin Ladin.
Remember, in large countries, to launch a strike using a nuke, several people with unlock codes must be used in order to do it. For example, President Bush could not sit there and say screw it and press a button. Much more complicated than that. However, you get a dictator like Saddam, all he has to do is give the order, (if he were to get one) and the missile would be launched. Another reason in my opinion that we must strike hard, strike fast those like him, and Bin Ladin, so that they don't have the chance to screw things up for the rest of the world. Do you really think they care? If you see what they have done to their own land, their own people, they obviously have no regard for human life at all.