Al Qaeda vs. the Soviet Union

Peter Robinson interviews retired General Jack Keane:

Even though Keane entered the armed forces at the height of the cold war, when the U.S. and the Soviet Union both bristled with nuclear weapons, he believes the country is in greater danger today. Since the Soviet Union "did not want its own country destroyed," Keane argued, "mutual assured destruction made sense to both of us." Now, however, we are "dealing with radicals ... [who] want to use weapons of mass destruction against the people of the United States."

In the face of such dangers, Keane insisted, our armed forces are simply inadequate.

This is a fairly striking claim. Leave aside the nuclear weapons, the Soviet Union had a massive conventional army, huge industrial base, a demonstrated willingness to coerce and overthrow governments around the world, and in the early days of the Cold War, a large number of sympathizers (and spies) in the West.

Al Qaeda - though very dangerous - has none of that.