Reply #58: I can't vote but...

[nine23]

I'm curious as to why nobody has mentioned Pakistan. As the saying goes, they're one bullet away from becoming US enemy #1 should Musharraf be assassinated.

They have nukes; the have a modern, well-equipped standing army, they have a modern air force, and they've been "practicing" their military chops with India for the past few decades. And besides a scant handful, all 147,000,000 of 'em hate the US big time.

The US is currently buying Musharraf's loyalty with gross amounts of cash. OBL can't be had even for reward monies totaling 50-odd million bucks - a tidy sum to a brown guy in this neck of the woods - because money's worthless to them in this struggle.

Dead Musharraf + resultant power vacuum = serious freakin' problem.

Dare I say "changes everything"? I'd love to be wrong on this one...

That said, I'm still with others on this thread who say the US is it's own greatest threat. The clock simply ticking away bears this out.