[David Noles]

I have to agree that Bush has undermined the balance of power in the world. The power is shifting away from the terrorists, the dictators, the America haters, and the appeasers, and is shifting toward us. That is not a BAD thing...unless you are an appeaser, a terrorist, a dictator, or an America hater. A balance of power with evil should not be our goal. Slavery over half the world is not acceptable, and certainly not in our best interests. We have seen the results of appeasement in World War II and the 9/11 attacks. We are now seeing the results of action. Time will tell what the ultimate result is, but the early returns look promising to me.

YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND. THE BALANCE OF POWER SHIFTED TO US BUT THIS WAS TEMPERARY. IN ORDER TO BALANCE US , RUSSIA IS ARMING THE MIDDLE EAST , RUSSIA AND CHINA ARE ARMING US AS WELL. A GLOBAL ARMS RACE IS BAD , MORE SO WHEN IT IS DONE IN ANTICIPATION OF HAVING TO GO TO WAR.

[Vision Thing]

You and I share Reagan as hero. Reagan put a global arms race into overdrive during his two terms. It did wonders for the world.

China and Russia have weak economies to match us.

Why don't you develop some Reagan optimism?

[EvilOverlord]

YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND. THE BALANCE OF POWER SHIFTED TO US BUT THIS WAS TEMPERARY. IN ORDER TO BALANCE US , RUSSIA IS ARMING THE MIDDLE EAST , RUSSIA AND CHINA ARE ARMING US AS WELL. A GLOBAL ARMS RACE IS BAD , MORE SO WHEN IT IS DONE IN ANTICIPATION OF HAVING TO GO TO WAR.

Russia is selling missiles because it wants CASH. It's a poor country. Putin admitted that his military is in too bad a shape to even respond to the terrorists who killed the kids in Beslan. They have no hope of opposing us.

China would be arming themselves whether we took action or not. They have their own goal of being a world power, regardless of what we do. Weakness on our part would merely mean that they would expect no check on their actions. If you want to maintain a balance of power, then we are doing the right thing in making China think twice about any action they may want to take.

Our best course of action is to show our enemies that we take being attacked seriously and we will fight until the threat is destroyed. Not until we have taught them a good lesson, but until the threat is eliminated. The lesson from history is that if we don't destroy them, we'll have to fight them again, later. Cross reference North Korea, the Barbary Pirates (as a counter-example), and yes, even Saddam Hussein, who has attempted to kill a former president, who routinely tried to kill our pilots, and who provided refuge and financing for terrorists.

It comes down to that old saying: You can start the fight,but I'll finish it.

We haven't finished the fight with Islamist dictators and terrorists while there are any still breathing.

If the next set of bad guys learns the lesson, great. If not, then we'll destroy them, too.

And no, I don't feel bad that we are the greatest power in the world, capable of doing whatever we want whenever we want. I feel proud of it.

We are using our might to destroy evil. That's the way it should be.