[Buzz]

When the enemy starts to gain leverage by using your own higher level peacefulness and civilization against you, then its time to stop being quite so peaceful and civilized. I sincerely hope that even though the SDI was back-burnered, skunk works development and secret deployment soldiered on, because given the direction things are going in Korea, Iran and Pakistan, we will soon reach a point of no return where militaty intervention will be necessary and Mutually Assured Destructon just doesn't cut it.

It seems all the players now are getting their own 'big sticks' and they're spoiling for a fight. Three things to remember: (1) A fiery armageddon holds a certain religious/romantic appeal to the Iranian fanatics.
(2) Kim Jong il in North Korea is a dying despot on his way out the door. He's convinced his people (and likely himself) that he has a claim to some sort of divinity - what types of thoughts and delusions do you think are swimming around in his head now that his lights are fading fast? We can only hope that the self-preservation instincts of those in his inner circle will make them take measures to keep him in check before he tries to take them all with him as he goes out in a blaze of glory.
And (3) The enemies of Western civilization are more united in purpose than we ourselves are. There is no doubt that the nuclear weapons programs in Korea and Iran are connected and that they are also both related to the Taliban offensive in nuclear armed Pakistan.