[dirtboy]

Your exactly right, a 50/50 chance of bringing this country to its knees (gimme a break) Russia is the only power that could bring this country to its knees, and the only way it could do it is by launching all its nukes at us.

That's not quite what he said, and the difference, although subtle, is very important:

He gives al-Qaeda a 50-50 chance of toppling the United States - reducing the nation to frightened, fragmented territories focused on their own survival.

This country is already very close to splitting apart - first we had the Clinton years, with two very different perceptions of reality (Dems versus ours), then Florida, and now we had those who would punish our enemies and those who would apologize for how horrible our country is. Al Queda doesn't have to destroy us - they just have to drive an occasional wedge into the fault lines that already exist.

[okisok]

Our enemies walk freely among us. Imagine the inner city riots if we lost power in our major cities.

[Restorer]

This country is already very close to splitting apart - first we had the Clinton years, with two very different perceptions of reality (Dems versus ours), then Florida, and now we had those who would punish our enemies and those who would apologize for how horrible our country is. Al Queda doesn't have to destroy us - they just have to drive an occasional wedge into the fault lines that already exist.

Such a truly serious attack, vastly different from the mostly symbolic attacks of 9/11, would create a surge of unity far more powerful than what we saw last fall. IMHO.

I also think the chaos it would create would be quickly contained.

[M. Thatcher]

This country is already very close to splitting apart

Oh, grow a pair, will you? I have no patience with Chicken Littles.

[Aliska]

those who would apologize for how horrible our country is.

Ironic that those who would apologize are responsible for the decline in morals in this society; i.e., the left.

[Wonder Warthog]

"This country is already very close to splitting apart - first we had the Clinton years, with two very different perceptions of reality (Dems versus ours), then Florida, and now we had those who would punish our enemies and those who would apologize for how horrible our country is. Al Queda doesn't have to destroy us - they just have to drive an occasional wedge into the fault lines that already exist."

Absolute bullshit. The first attack unified the nation as it hasn't been since Pearl Harbor. Any further attack will trigger a unified national retaliatory fury beside which the campaign in Afghanistan will look like a flea next to a whale.