Demos, sadly with your reasoning you will have us back to the Roman Empire, and which also means that you believe that the now crackpot US regime should be still calling the global tune.

Well, I guess if the Bush regime does resort to the Red Button, which will be the only way that the US will quieten Iran, and with the help of fiery little atomic Israel of course - guess we will be facing the crude animalistic survival of the fittest, and which looks like right up your alley.

Just remember that the Cold War petered out by both sides doing some commonsense thinking, please take a lesson.

"Reckon its about time most of you right-wingers who by your intellect give reminder of Hitler's stormtroopers, should get real and take good notice of Dr Cumes reasoning."

bushbred: Thanks for that. All I was pointing out was that America's fall from grace is far from certain, and that someone else's rise to replace it is also far from certain. I wasn't actually cheering for any side.

I'm actually opposed to the neo-cons, including Paul Wolfowitz, but don't let that stop you from lumping me in with them.

Also, the Cold War didn't peter out. The Cold War came to an end because the Iron Curtain's economic theories finally showed themselves to be impossible and impractical, and they lost the Cold War. By definition, if the U.S. (and West in general) hadn't won the Cold War, we wouldn't be in the situation (for better or worse) that we're in today.

Shorbe, please accept my apologies, from me it was just a generalisation, to the many who seem to regard me as just an old fruitcake. With such feelings it is better to stick to the old military term, no names no pack drill.

Also the term Petered Out is an old bush term which means that both sides eventually believe it is time to give it away. Though they were pretty well done for for by the US, the end of the Cold War was really no normal surrender by the Soviets. It is so interesting that they were allowed to keep part of their nuclear weaponry stockpile.

Guess from the US at the time it was a case of trust, but one wonders whether America under GW Bush and Co would have agreed to the same arrangements.

bushbred: Interesting hypothetical. However, I don't think the U.S. had much choice in allowing the Soviet nuclear stockpile to be carried over to Russia as it's not like they could have walked in and confiscated them. If they'd tried, it would have been on for young and old.