You knew who the enemy was. And he had SOME scruples; good grief, can you imagine a MAD with Al Qaeda? There was a tacit gentlemens agreement that since both sides wanted a global empire, or at least hegemony, it was PROBABLY a good idea to preserve a globe to rule. The Soviets didn't want to kill you and I, they wanted to TURN us; anyone who wasn't actively aligned against them wasn't on their hit list, if only because they were "still in play. " With the terrorists it doesn't matter; they'll slit their own mothers throats if they think her commitment to jihad isn't strong enough.

And speaking of scruples, the Soviets did have some. There were limits, and for all the talk of the Evil Empire, we knew there were limits, and those who didn't need only look at Al Qaeda to see the difference. Not only did that help keep the Cold War from getting very hot, since the moral highground was part of the contest, the Soviets helped keep us honest: To have a plausible claim to moral superiority we had to stop at least an inch short of their worst excesses. No longer. Now we can redefine torture to be Not Torture and still piously claim superiority because "we don't torture. " As long as we don't deliberately murder thousands of innocent civilians in cold blood we have at least a nominal claim to the moral high ground.