It's not the brightness that is a problem. Only a few countries could see such a meteor on their radars anyway. The issue is confusing the explosion, whether on the ground or as is much more likely high in the atmosphere, with a nuclear explosion. Only a very few countries, and certainly not all those with their own nukes, could quicly tell the difference between a nuke and one of these larger meteors (I say meteors, because we are speaking of the thing as it enters the atmosphere, before then it's a meteoroid, after, if it survives, it's a meteorite). A nation like Pakistan, or Israel, might mistake one for a nuke and cut loose against it's enemies.
Hmm maybe we could steer one over the Med just offshore from Israel, or over the Negev somewhere. No more problem with Iraq, probably no more Iraq, or at least no more Baghdad, they should leave Basra in the south and Mosul in the North alone. That's where all the oil is anyway. Then Basra province can become part of Kuwait, and the north can become some kind of Turkish protectorate, as it was (as was most all of the Arab world), before WW-I.