Reply #11: They're not as big a threat as the USSR

[midnight armadillo]

Al-Qaeda has demonstrated the ability to kill thousands of US citizens. With a different selection of targets (i.e. nuke power plants or chemical plants) they could have killed tens of thousands.

The USSR has the demonstrated ability to wipe every major city in the US off the map several times over via ICBMs, plus they had the largest (or one of the largest) militaries in the world in their heyday. A military that was lined up on the borders of US allies.

Really, comparing the threat of Al Qaeda the safety and continued existence of the US with that posed by the mutual Cold War US/USSR belligerence is laughable. Al Qaeda's goals, as specified by OBL, were clear: US out of Saudi Arabia (done!), along with a few others that I can't remember at the moment. None of them involved replacing the US government with an Islamic theocracy.

Oh, and not intended to offend, the liberal use of proper capitalization and punctuation really helps your posts' readability. Just a thought.