If I Talk To Rural

Often, The Pretexts For Starting A War Are Not Real Shortages Of Land, Food Or Fuel, But Rather Perceptions - Like Fear, Honor And Perceived Self-interest.

The American People Are Not Naifs Who Yearn For Isolationism, But They Are Starting To Ask Some Hard Questions About The Way We Have Been Doing Business For 50 Years, And It May Well Be Time To Grant The French, Canadians, Germans, Turks, South Koreans, And A Host Of Others Their Wishes For Independence From Us: Polite Friendship - But No Alliances, No Bases, No Money, No Trade Concessions, And No More Begging For The Privilege Of Protecting Them.

The Problem With Deterrence - Apparently Sometimes Forgotten By Our Former Presidents - Is That It Is Not Static, But A Creature Of The Moment, Captive To Impression, And Nursed On Action, Not Talk. It Must Be Maintained Hourly And Can Erode Or Be Lost With A Single Act Of Failed Nerve, Despite All The Braggadocio Of Threatened Measures. And, Once Gone, The Remedies Needed For Its Restoration Are Always More Expensive, Deadly - And Controversial - Than Would Have Been Its Simple Maintenance.

Ignorance And Arrogance Are A Lethal Combination. Nowhere Do We See That More Clearly Among Writers And Performers Who Pontificate As Historians When They Know Nothing About History.

The Easily Ridiculed, So-so Status Quo Often Hides Herculean Efforts By Those Whom We Take For Granted, And Who, Working In The Shadows, Guarantee Civilization Instead Of Chaos.