“American nuclear forces on global alert” is what CBS dished out as this author awoke on that chilly October morning in 1973 while attending Madison College in Virginia.

This was Nixon’s response to Brezhnev’s announcing the potential deployment of Soviet airborne troops into the midst of the Yom Kippur War in an effort to stop Israel’s advance toward Cairo.

It was both amazing and amusing watching the Soviet’s quickly back tract in the face of stern American resolve.

To put things in a more contemporary setting is to beg the question --- should the United States consider the use of nuclear weapons to deter potential attacks by Muslim extremists.

This politically incorrect notion must be given weight in light of the worldwide jihad that has been declared against the U.S. by Muslim terrorists and the nation-states that support and hide them. It is nothing short of the 4th Crusade and it is taking on religious overtones in the form of a global holy war financed by these terrorist nations.

It is fair to say that national dogma promulgated by an Islamic theocracy is more rigid and less flexible than what is accepted within a pluralist democracy.

This is not to suggest that all Muslims are extremists and practice Islam by the strictest rules of the Koran. Many are fine citizens of democratic nations who enjoy the fruits and prosperity of hard work within western cultures while practicing Islam.

And some would argue that Muslim extremists are no more radical than the extreme Christian Right in this country.

One thing is for sure --- Islamic culture in general is more inflexible that Western culture by a county mile.

This was demonstrated recently when the Muslim world refused to accept

the Pope’s repeated apologies concerning his medieval reference to Allah being an evil force.

And several years ago when Islamic factions took over town councils in two Italian villages through the electoral process --- they called for the immediate shutdown of all Christian churches within those municipalities even though the local Christian community tolerated Islamic worship and Mosques for many years.

This should give pause to all Americans about the enemy we face. Extreme elements within Islam have declared a “holy war” against America bent on its absolute destruction.

Little attention was given to French President Jacques Chirac when he publicly announced last year that France would use nukes if attacked by Muslim extremists.

Since terrorists raid in small numbers and their cells are dispersed within a country, Chirac wasn’t talking about using nukes on his own soil. Neither was he going to detonate one of those big firecrackers in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. His intention was very clear --- and “aimed” by way of the Middle East.

Despite France’s failed historic reliance on “appeasement diplomacy”, their one great show of strength on this issue has thus far saved them from intimidation and attack.

Some say that using such powerful and destructive weapons in retaliation of a Muslim extremist attack is unfair and inhumane because the American government can’t seem to exactly link the attacks to any particular nation.

That leaves America exposed to even further molestations.

Political correctness should not hold back the United States from projecting and potentially using its nuclear arsenal to protect its citizens and global interests from the very terrorist nations that seek our downfall by whatever means they can employ.

Surfacing a Trident submarine in the Persian Gulf with hatches open may send a clear message to our foes, that unlike the prior Crusades, we intend to win this one.

As Presidents Kennedy, Nixon, and Reagan proved to our enemies at the time, “power achieved is power perceived.”