America's New Purpose?

Since jobs and industry is hightailing out of here America needs something to work toward, keep it's mind occupied.

Ridge: Terror War Likely to Last Decades

PITTSBURGH (AP) -- Former Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge, speaking at the opening of a new RAND Corp. office, said the war on terror is likely to last for decades, much like the Cold War.

"For every (Osama) bin Laden, there's a bin Laden wannabe. And for every al-Qaida, there's a like organization," Ridge said Wednesday in Pittsburgh.

"I don't know if anyone in the 1950s thought the Cold War would last close to half a century, but it did," Ridge said. "The challenge is global and it may take a generation or two or more to reduce."

Federal, state and local authorities now share more intelligence that they did before the attacks, but they will have to continue to improve to if they are to prevent future terrorism, Ridge said.

RAND Corp., a research and analysis institution focused on policy and problem solving, emerged during the Cold War with a defense-related agenda and remains involved in a range of national security issues.