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"Absolutely the best of times to be alive!! A live enemy, and 'Buck-Rogers' weapons to be tried-out! By God, I wish I was 20 again!"

Who says you have to be twenty? The neatest stuff in the U.S arsenal is operated from a comfy chair in a safe location. And truly the most important weapon in the U.S. arsenal (or anyone's arsenal, for that matter) is good intelligence.

Though not as prominent or colorful as modern U.S. weapons of battle, the intel capabilities the U.S. is now rapidly developing would make Sun Tzu drool lustfully. Put the best warriors and the finest intel possible in the hands of a modern military genius, and it won't take too long at all before the enemy is demoralized and defeated.

While there are plenty of exotic new "Buck-Rogers" weapons for the boys to run around with, their success and safety depend most critically on having intel superiority over the enemy. Combine the two, and you have a military instrument far more terrifying than any weapon of mass destruction: the ability to quickly and reliably locate and strike any individual or group of any size, anytime, anywhere in the world, without warning. Efficient, precise, accurate and deadly projection of power.

Especially important in this war is the fact that such a capability can be used to prevent the enemy from even being able to attack -- if the intel is good enough. The U.S. already had a strong lead in surveillance technology before 9-11. Now, radical new technologies and methods are being put in place that are years ahead of what we would have otherwise had, and are focused on exactly the problems we face in fighting terrorists.

Already, people are concerned about privacy, and with good reason, because the power the U.S. is developing to fight terrorism can easily be abused. Nonetheless, it is a power the U.S. needs to effectively defend itself, and by its very nature needs to be absolute to assure victory.

Consider what successful use of this power will mean: anyone who so much as thinks about attacking the United States would be neutralized before they could do anything about it.

That would redefine the meaning of the word "terror".

Imal