A big part of the way the "War on Terror" is being sold to those of us in the US is the idea that there is a coordinated effort on the part of Islamic extremist (Al Qaeda being in the forefront of that effort) to destroy America.

A big part of the way the missile defense shield is being sold to those of us in the US is the idea that there are a lot of people in the world (rogue states and terrorist organizations) that want to destroy America.

If nobody is trying to destroy America, I think the taxpayers in this country would be a lot more circumspect about being willing to pay for those two programs. Which is why they're trying to convince us that there are a lot of people in the world who are trying to destroy this country.

But we have been assured here in this thread that nobody is trying to destroy America, so we can now inform the US electorate so that they (we) can prioritize how our tax dollars are being spent.