After WWII and the Cold War, are we adrift as a nation without another world power as a threat?

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[ARCHIVED THREAD] - After WWII and the Cold War, are we adrift as a nation without another world power as a threat?

Posted: 7/7/2010 1:38:46 AM EDT

Just curious, and thinking about the question...

We have had a constant enemy since 1941 and until 1991- First the Axis and then the Soviets.

Are we lost as a nation without the threat of war from major world powers?

ETA- Yes, I am drunk and asking this. Just something I have been thinking about since drinking a bit tonight.

Posted: 7/7/2010 1:42:55 AM EDT

[#1]

Pretty much, yeah. Just look at the creepy obsession around here with Reagan.

Posted: 7/7/2010 2:36:19 AM EDT

[#2]

Nope. We just haven't figured out how to deal with the hadji threat long term.

Posted: 7/7/2010 2:52:54 AM EDT

[#3]

Quoted:
Pretty much, yeah. Just look at the creepy obsession around here with Reagan.

So what war did Reagan start? I remember him finishing one [cold war]. [And Grenada wasn't a "war"]

Posted: 7/7/2010 3:07:06 AM EDT

[#4]

We have plenty of threats , just not enough people perceiving them.

If I could tie Reagan into this, it would be that the left used the momentum of his success to make people complacent.

Posted: 7/7/2010 3:19:07 AM EDT

[#5]

At the most basic and simplistic level, the Soviet Union was the "better" bad guy. The Soviet Union was a tangible threat, you could look on a map and say that is the enemy. While the current transnational terrorists tend not to have a single country of origin or a country they operate from.

Posted: 7/7/2010 3:30:37 AM EDT

[#6]

Not sure, but America does better with a common enemy that we can make fun of.

...and this has not happened since the end of the Cold War.

Al Queda really does not count, as it's part a religion we are forced to respect and it's apparently blasphemous to make propaganda against it.

Posted: 7/7/2010 3:42:19 AM EDT

[#7]

Ever heard of China?

Posted: 7/7/2010 4:12:56 AM EDT

[#8]

Nah, the cold war was an anomaly. The US has historically not been a nation with an arch-enemy, and shouldn't be.

We traditionally don't have a 'traditional enemy.'

Posted: 7/7/2010 8:19:17 PM EDT

[#9]

Quoted:
Nah, the cold war was an anomaly. The US has historically not been a nation with an arch-enemy, and shouldn't be.

We traditionally don't have a 'traditional enemy.'

I also believe this to be true.

I would like to think that we are by nature a peaceful people...with good intentions.

Posted: 7/7/2010 8:22:51 PM EDT

[#10]

We're a consumer based, valueless, throwaway society (and that includes human beings) that is going to implode eventually. What outside enemy can do more harm? No one.

We're adrift simply because gender roles are no more and racial divides still exist because of the past and the people still accused of it (the white male in most cases) is simply starting to tune out and not give a damn.

Posted: 7/7/2010 8:27:51 PM EDT

[#11]

IMO, we are adrift, not because we have no enemy, but because they have changed thier tactics. We had brute strength, so they became smoke. It has left us frustrated and strained. Death by 1 thousand papercuts.

Posted: 7/7/2010 8:33:25 PM EDT

[#12]

Without Darth Vader, Luke is just a whiny bitch.

I think those of us who grew up during the cold war, have a vastly different view of the world than noobies.

Posted: 7/7/2010 8:37:26 PM EDT

[#13]

Quoted:
Without Darth Vader, Luke is just a whiny bitch.

I think those of us who grew up during the cold war, have a vastly different view of the world than noobies.

See your point but the Cold War was about ideologies. The modern day is about culture and religion and this time MAD isn't even a forethought. People that will willingly kill themselves, unlike the USSR and the MAD policy that kept everything in check, aren't going to back down easily and will never be defeated.

Posted: 7/7/2010 8:42:49 PM EDT

[#14]

They will be defeated in the end. At least according to Revelations, after millions die.

Posted: 7/7/2010 8:58:52 PM EDT

[#15]

Quoted:
They will be defeated in the end. At least according to Revelations, after millions die.

Do not want. There's got to be a better way.

Posted: 7/20/2010 5:09:52 AM EDT

[#16]

I think that we are lulled into complacency. Lots of Americans are finding it hard to believe that any other nation on Earth is a threat big enough for us to have to maintain our military at its current levels.

Posted: 7/20/2010 5:54:50 AM EDT

[#17]

Quoted:
Pretty much, yeah. Just look at the creepy obsession around here with Reagan.

yeah because clinton was soooo much better

Posted: 7/20/2010 6:31:50 AM EDT

[#18]

Often, it does seem like we need a war to support our economy and fuel the millitary-industrial complex, and I'm not sure the international infarctions of the last 30-40 yrs. are filling-the-bill.
When a serious threat to our existance seems to fade, we continue building larger and larger "intelligence" agencies, evidence our policies after the fall of the Soviet Union. Instead of downsizing our spy industry, we simply turned it inward and use it to keep an eye on our own population.

Yesterday, cable news was reporting on the 10's of thousands of "Homieland Security" offices created nation-wide. We're installing video camera's in every public place, maybe a few not-so-public and traffic intersections,etc., yet a half-wit, rag-head can still walk on a plane in try to set his shoe on fire.

Posted: 7/20/2010 6:45:20 AM EDT

[#19]

Now we can focus on the enemy within.

Posted: 7/20/2010 8:36:19 AM EDT

[#20]

The War On Terrorism is what we are using to maintain primacy in the world. We don't have a Russia to counter, so we didn't have a reason to have our fingers all over the world-but the WOT restores that. The thing is, while cock-blocking the Russians is never a bad thing, our current efforts seem to be countering China while ensuring cheap oil for the USA.

Posted: 7/20/2010 8:37:59 AM EDT

[#21]

Quoted:
At the most basic and simplistic level, the Soviet Union was the "better" bad guy. The Soviet Union was a tangible threat, you could look on a map and say that is the enemy. While the current transnational terrorists tend not to have a single country of origin or a country they operate from.

[governmentplannertypeguy]It's beautiful, isn't it?[/governmentplannertypeguy]

Posted: 7/20/2010 8:41:38 AM EDT

[#22]

Eurasia has always been at war with East Asia.

Posted: 7/20/2010 8:42:05 AM EDT

[#23]

Don't worry. If we run out of threats we'll invent one.

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - After WWII and the Cold War, are we adrift as a nation without another world power as a threat?

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