Alan, all that artillery isn't much use when you can't see the enemy but, being a "collector" myself, I understand the comfort of having a private arsenal --- even if it's just for show!
IMO, the US is in a most difficult situation, tactically, strategically, militarily, politically, socially and possibly even economically. At every turn the US is damned if it does and damned if it doesn't. At best it has to make coalitions with rogues, on their terms, and at worst it has to fight with the whole world --- on its own --- and against an invisible enemy.
For a start, if the US does not seriously compromise its luvvy-dovey situation with Israel, the Moslem nations will not proceed very far with any coalition. And, if the US does try to force a settlement on Israel which does not suit all the Jewish "fundamentalists" (and how can it?!), there will be widespread reaction from Jews in the US and elsewhere and shouts of anti-semitism and Nazism etc. There can be no doubt that, although this war is between Islam and the US, it is also between Islam and Israel/the Jewish people.
To complicate the situation further, even though the leaders of the various Islamic countries might go along with a coalition with the US and talk peace with every breath, the people in those countries are very angry. Revolutions could even break out all over the place. Anyone could be assassinated. Governments could be overturned. Have no doubt that anti-US venom is delivered in every mosque with every sermon --- despite all the protestations that Islam is a religion of peace.
In the US, the Moslems are all crapping themselves so they lock themselves in their houses and say nothing, but I can see on TV, in SA, the Moslem students and others are going wild in a jihad-crazed frenzy. I believe 5000 have already enlisted to fight in Afghanistan against the US, of course. And that's a lot for a small country like this.
The US tries to make out that it's fight is with "Terrorism" --- that's bullshit. The fight is with Islam, and if it isn't right now, it soon will be. There are nearly 1.5 billion Muslims in this world, that's 5 Muslims for every American --- 100 Muslims for every Jew.
And don't think the US can even-up the imbalance with a few Nukes here and there. If that happens, all moderate Western nations, UK, Europe, Canada, etc will pull out of the coalition. And, with tactical, suitcase-size, nuclear weapons all over the place, the US would be very stupid to invite retaliation in kind.
Of course, the Clinton administration was considerably to blame for where the world and especially the US finds itself today, but even then, the rise of Islam has been inexorable and a conflict between it and the West was inevitable. I have predicted this conflict for a long time, even said so to my few Muslim friends, but I never believed it would happen so soon, so dramatically, and with the West in such a compromised situation. |
