US Secretary of Defence, Donald Rumsfeld, recently announced the ‘war on terror’ would be re-named “the long war”; this announcement has not surprised analysts who are aware that neo-con ideologues and strategists follow the Straussian (and perverted Trotskyist) doctrine of permanent war. Some interpret this as nostalgia for the ‘good old days’ of the Cold War in which a clearly defined enemy (communist bogeymen) kept the nation on permanent alert and amenable to the powers of the time.