Brunching

"This one is for learning the lessons of Afghanistan"
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Having brunch with an out-of town friend this morning (that's what Kerry-lovin' liberals do, right--brunch?), I heard a very simple truism from my communicant. It grew out of a Sociology 101 discussion on the authoritarian mindset, whose adherents yearn for direction and will unblinkingly follow the father-leader into the mouth of hell. To wit,

"Why is it people are so afraid today? I grew up with the Soviet menace around every corner, and thousands of actual nuclear warheads aimed right for the U.S., yet now I'm expected to give up my rights to be protected from men like Osama bin Laden, who live in caves who do not have nuclear capacities?"

It is a simple and valid question. How have we come this far (backward), and forgotten that we came through an actual threat intact, and forgotten the ways in which we achieved that detente?

Input is welcomed.

--Lisa