For those of you who may be confused as to why Rip would want a glass-paved parking lot in the Middle East...
...What he means is, saturation nuclear bombing (airbursts) would turn the desert sand into glass.
How would this affect most of us? Well, for starters, gasoline would probably cost about $20 or $30 a gallon.
Sorry, I had to analyze this, but I was born and raised inside the Beltway (The ring-highway that circles Washington, DC.)
MRPLUTO VMF-323 ~Death Rattlers~ MAG-33