[CoLawman]

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Again, respectfuly I disagree. The Cold War was a game of nations in balance of power politics. It was simple by comparison. I would say the analogy between the two does not fit, and is not a good model to use.
In the thread that spawned this there was discussion of the movie Syriana, while the movie holds little more then entertainment value IMHO (Baer's Sleeping with the Devil and to a lesser extent See No Evil of which the movie was based off of are excellent), the tagline "Everything is Connected" was spot on. This is the fusion of religion, history, politics, energy, politics and nature all together, and they are all connected.

The analogy was not supposed to fit. I was comparing the Cold War to the GWOT. There was no simplicity to the Cold War, being a baby boomer, I can assure you that anxiety levels were considerably higher during the Cold War than they are now. Anxiety was brought about by mutually assured destruction, arms race, Communism, nuclear proliferation, the Bay of Pigs, Cuban Missile Crisis, Viet Nam, The Assasination of JFK, Watergate, Kent State, The oil embargo and on and on and on. Having taken part in Air Raid practices while in elementary school..........there was no simplicity during those times. I sat beside the radio listening to the Cuban Missile Crisis play out.

As my previous post stated we are dealing with terrorists who ply their trade through the killing of civilians by gruesome means. This is nothing new, we just did not understand the threat, or we chose to ignore the threat. Presidents from both parties failed to respond appropriately to the early indications of this growing menace. The loss of our Marines in Beirut, The attack and occupation of our embassy in Iran, The Achille Lauro, Somalia, Lockerbie, World Trade Center I, et al. Being asleep at the switch at Pearl Harbor pales in comparison to our slumber over the past two decades.

President Bush was the first to take the appropriate action. He appropriately identified the Axis of Evil. He made appropriate promises that action would be taken against terrorists throughout the world. Has he lived up to the historical speech he made before congress after 9/11? Somewhat, but I applaud his efforts, knowing that MSM and the Democrats have no vision, no stomach, and no spine, it is surprising he has been able to do what he has done.

Iran, Syria, and the radical mullahs hardly compare to the old Soviet Union, China, and Korea. They are just better at using the OMG factor. You want a guage to judge the significance of their accomplishments, look at the economy and the DOW. Look at interest rates. Check out the cost of living index comparing now to then.

It is desperate, this is a life and death struggle for the future of the modern world. Oil is the life blood that allows for industrialization, that allows for industrial agriculture, what is needed to keep the extra 5 billion people the world has added since we harnessed oil and moved subsistence agriculture.
I do not think this is a war, the term war implies somekind of endgame, a victor, a parade. I think this is a struggle, that nobody is going to win, I am sorry I do not share your optimism.

It is not desperate!!! Armageddon is not upon us........it is upon those rogue nations that support terrorism. Oil is the life blood as it was during the oil embargo. We survived then and we are in better position to survive now. Agriculture is doing just fine. As you stated everything is connected. You think those terrorists can grown their own food. They live in the damn desert! They are as dependent if not more so on exports than we are. We may not be able to drive our SUV, but we will have bread and butter on our table.

This is a stuggle that WE will win. Mutually Assured Destruction during the Cold War was a scenario where no one wins.

I will share something with you that drives my optimism. America! Siimple but that says it all. America........is what insures the sun will rise in the morning.

This, this keeps me up at night.

I have a son who is surely going to war soon. DennisW and 18Xdad have sons going to war soon, as do others on this board. That keeps me up at night. QP's on this board are going to war soon, or already in the fight, that should keep us up at night. What allows me to sleep at night is there is not a terrorist that can match the American soldier, sailor, marine, or airman.

We have no choice.

Absolutely correct. Keep beating the drums while serving your customers, make sure they "get it." Because we might need all the support on the home front if we finally pull the trigger on Iran.