There is a case for nuclear weapons increasing stability between rational national players. Today, India and Pakistan act fairly rational. After all, a calculation of what\'s to be gained from using nukes has be offset against what\'s to be lost. Kashmir is not worth New Delhi or Islamabad.

If you think the tradeoff is now between using nukes and enjoying 71 virgins in Heaven, then there will be no stability.

As to not trusting the US in this new order, whom would you trust or what altenative do you suggest? Right now, it looks like France and the others are moving beyond being \"free riders\" on the security the US has created, they seem to intend to cut us down while we work to create it.

The US is a reliable democracy. Our history, while not blameless, has shown a willingness to help others and to sacrifice to create peace, freedom, order and a better standard of living for all - insofar as practical. We know that what we want as a people are what other peoples want too and know that taking the good things of life from another people doesn\'t add to our happiness or prosperity. As the Iraq and North Korea crises play out, the US will fashion a world where it controls the grosser violence just because we are the primary target. We\'re going to have to knock some heads to make it so - to do nothing risks every civilization on the planet.

We will make the world in our own image to a large extent - just remember that you don\'t HAVE to eat at McDonalds - and we will ensure our own commercial ascendency. While what we will create is not an empire, we will need for it to pay and not become too big a drain on our energies. Perhaps a worldwide carbon tax payable to the US government to support the US military?

France is going to get busted BIG TIME - my advice is don\'t get caught up on the losing side.