you raise really good points. it reminded me of something that my european history professor told us last year. she mentioned that she was working on a thesis that dealt with the idea that the people of the great superpowers of the ages(for my lack of a better term) don't read the newspaper. i guess she had done lots of research and found that the romans at the height of thier empire paid little, to no attention to what went on outside of thier empire. granted that there are obvious differences between the massive roman empire and the u.s., but i think that it raises an interesting point. has the american public been lulled into a (false?) sense of security by our power since ww1? seriously, a rediculous number of countries have nuculear power at thier disposal. is it all that far fetched that we try to impose our riteous ideals of democracy(or so the government calls it) on one of these countries, and the person running this country isn't going to put up with it, and fires upon us?
okay, i may be getting caried away here, but it's something to think about.

there comes a time in every mans life when he's gotta handle shit up on his own Can't depend on friends to help you in a squeeze, please they got problems of their own---slim kid3