Responding to msg by ravage@bga.com (Jim choate) on Fri, 2 Sep 10:8 AM

Lesson 2 should be that the 'external' threat won't last forever and at some point the real issues will blow up to such an extent that the poplace will not be concerned about external events because they are so busy trying to stay alive and make a living.

Yes. The external threat to the US has diminished, let's hope, to where some resources, human and material, can be applied to ways to make an advanced society serve its citizenry without resorting to fear of foreign boogies. The way that the surveillance satellite systems of the US and the USSR helped to reduce fear of military planners is instructive. This non-lethal technology, though expensive, made, and continues to make, accidental nuclear war less likely, and seems to me to be a great service to the world's population. Aggressive weapons systems may be similarly replaced by non-lethal technology as scientists and technologists are asked to device such apparatus. Fear of economic and social deprivation might also benefit from the talents of those who once produced the tools of the Cold War and hot regional conflicts you mention. Further, this list offers other ways to envision a society less dependent on the national security rubric of big Government, and may thereby support alternative local initiatives for economic and civil affairs. Kudos for this non-lethal work. John