500,000 Americans die of cancer every year...

[ddeclue]

400,000 Americans die of tobacco related diseases
100,000 Americans die of alchohol related causes
72,000 Americans die of diabetes with it contributing to another 230,000 deaths
68,000 Americans die of stroke
40,000 Americans die of AIDS
40,000 Americans die in auto accidents
30,000 Americans die of gun shots

We need to get some perspective about September 11th.

Yes 3,000 Americans died but we continue to treat this event out of all proportion to its actual effect.

Nobody leaves here alive (except for may-be the rapture righties)

We all are going to die of something and it is far more likely to be the result of a life-style choice.

We eat too much, we drink too much, we smoke too much, we work too much, we drive too fast, we don't take precautions, we are too angry and too willing to hurt others and we don't exercise enough.

Yet nobody has ever suggested that we should torture and kill people, hold them in dungeons without a trial, wiretap our own citizens or invade other countries pre-emptively in order to prevent these more likely threats to our own existence.

Nobody has suggested that we rip up the Constitution to protect us from a Big Mac with fries and a coke.

We need to get perspective in this country and grow a back bone.

The international situation we face today is hardly unique to our history nor even remotely near the kinds of threats we faced at the beginning of our nation when our Army consisted of 85 regular officers and whatever part-time militia they could muster at any given time while we were surrounded on all sides by various European powers with large militaries.

At the beginning of World War II, our Army was about the 10th largest in the world - far behind Germany, Russia, Japan, France and other world powers and our navy was third largest.

For most of our history, America has NOT been a military superpower. That has only been true since World War II. For most of our history we were the underdogs.

Even from World War II through the Cold War, the threats were far more substantial than they are today. Nuclear annihilation in 45 minutes was the mantra of the Cold War. Today it's 19 guys with box cutters... not exactly nuclear annihilation my friends.

Yet during the Cold War, this country EXPANDED civil liberties and PROTECTED the Constitution. Today we use those 19 guys with box cutters as an excuse to cut the Constitution to ribbons in the name of "security".

There WAS a time when this nation DID face actual annihilation - it was called the Civil War when almost 2% of our population died, 685,000 and when cities DID burn to the ground and armies did march through American streets. September 11th, wouldn't have even been the 20th largest battle of the Civil War.

Nor does September 11th compare to World War II battles like Normandy, the Bulge, or Iwo Jima either.

Nor does it even compare with Tet and Khe Sahn in Vietnam or with the Chosun Reservoir in Korea.

We need to get some perspective, re-learn our history and stop cheapening it by acting like we live in the worst of times today. We don't.

We need to remember that we ARE the world's last nuclear, conventional and economic superpower. We spend more on defense than the next 27 nations combined. Yet, we can't ever feel safe in spite of it.

The truth is that the world isn't safe no matter how much you spend. You can spend your life in a bunker and be paranoid or you can live your life and enjoy each day as it comes.

And finally the truth is also that it is much easier to be safe when you have friends rather than make enemies. During the Cold War we created NATO, SEATO, the UN, and other organizations to have friends instead of thumbing our nose at the world and acting like cowboys.

Let's remember 9/11 but let's get some perspective and restore our Constitution and the rule of law and the American way of life and on election day, lets put an end to the nightmare of the last 7 years of quasi-monarchy in America.

Doug D.
Orlando, FL

[thunder rising]

1. We need to remember...WE ARE NOT THE ONLY NUCLEAR POWER left standing. Russia is still capable

[ddeclue]

2. Well kind of...

not like the old days though...

:nuke: :hide:

[hendo]

7. you only have to have enough nukes

to blow up the world once. After that, its just for show.

[ddeclue]

11. It seems unlikely that the Russians could deal the kind of blow

they did back in the 1970's and 1980's. Their military is in a terrible state of disrepair and the command and control required for a coordinated attack has fallen into a terrible state in the former USSR. On the other hand that makes them more prone to accidents...

Doug D.

[hendo]

12. back in the 70's they could have done it 6 times over.

I bet they still have at least 1/6th of thier old stash.

[ddeclue]

13. Yes but their ability to deliver a coordinated strike of hundreds

of bombs or thousands of them is far more in doubt. They can't pay their soldiers, they are having all sorts of problems with equipment and it is far from the glory days of the USSR there today.

Doug D.

[aquart]

3. And India, Pakistan, China, England, France, maybe Israel....

[ddeclue]

4. I really don't see England or France or India as likely to nuke us

any time soon.

And if China did attack us that way, who would they sell all of their stuff to?

In any event, our nuclear deterrent is still so overwhelming that nobody would do this.

Our military spends more than the next 27 nations combined on defense including India, Pakistan, China, England, France, (and Russia, Germany, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Austrailia, Japan, etc. etc.) combined.

If we don't feel "safe" it isn't for a lack of funding...

Doug D.

[hendo]

9. China

would not attack the US.

I'm a little worried about Pakistan and perhaps Israel. Not so much that they would attack the US, but that they would be likely to start WW3.

[hunter]

5. Israel has got atomic bombs.

White Apartheid South Africa had bombs, but they dismantled that program quickly when they realized they wouldn't be in power much longer.

It wouldn't surprise me if a few other nations also have unacknowledged nuclear weapons.

I think our biggest worry with Iran is not that they will have bombs, but that they will use their oil and gas resources in ways that are not beneficial to U.S. interests. But even without the bomb, other nations with bombs are watching Iran's back.

[ddeclue]

6. Iran's interest in "the bomb" is mostly about a deterrent against Israel.

They wouldn't be stupid enough to try to use them against the U.S. pre-emptively.

Doug D.

[Sebastian Doyle]

14. maybe?

You really think they don't? Or are you just going by their official policy of not admitting to it?

[Tribetime]

8. 50 million without health insurance...they are forgotten

by the fucken msm

[ddeclue]

10. Not as spectacular as terrorism because it happens one person at a time

in private. Therefore the MSM has no real interest because "it doesn't look good on tape".

Doug D.

[farmboxer]

15. Nobody wins a nuclear war.

Make no mistake about it, Russia has enough nukes to destroy us all, both Russia and America would be destroyed, including the entire planet. Palin appears to be a delusional nut.

[ddeclue]

16. No Palin doesn't "appear" to be a delusional nut...she IS a delusional nut..

In tribute here is Major Kong riding the H-bomb from Doctor Strangelove..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcW_Ygs6hm0&feature=related