Mutual Assured Destruction was our policy with the Soviets by default, not by preference. Had there been any feasible way to keep the Soviet Union from acquiring nuclear weapons in the first place, we would have done it. As it was, those Americans who cheerfully believed that Stalin had as much right to atomic weapons as any democracy saw to it that he got them fast enough. Their philosophical children are still with us, unfortunately.

And MAD only works if one assumes the other side does not believe that dying for their cause is a greater thing than staying alive.

Even if Saddam believes in staying alive, he will certainly pump his nuclear arsenal to groups who do not have such scruples, or even a fixed location. Or do you honestly think that if Saddam had a few nukes in storage, he might not slip one out on one of his "bad days" to someone whose fondest ambition is to blow up Tel Aviv? Or Washington?