The question was a rhetorical one, Strick... Of course the vista is just as imposing. But the defeatist nature of your last statement, and the acceptance you have of this state of affairs,is worrying, Strick.
It provides all the excuse we need to go into another country and sell the idea to the Nation that this is going to make thimgs safer.

I've said it before, $86 billion would have gone a long way if spent revamping Internal Security, instead.
The fact that it was not even contemplated at the beginning of the Bush Presidency, is a question of assignation of priorities, IMO, and in this respect, also, 9/11 could have had a chance of being prevented.

That $86 bn. is only the tip of the iceberg, you know. When was the last time any Government put in a realistic tender for anything? (that question was also rhetorical, incidentally). The longer this goes on over in the 'Axis of Evil' (because the job is far from over, remember), the more drain it will be on the American economy.

If America pulls its troops out of Iraq, as it will someday do, will everybody remember that Iran and Syria were also on the next-to-liberate-list, and wonder where all those plans went?

Jim