Shameless Poker Analogy

During the Cold War, it was like there were two big players, with big stacks, constantly trying to play against each other. We would support smaller stacks (Afghanistan) against the big stacked Soviets, as would they (North Korea) against us.

Now, it's as if there is one big stack - us and these Islamo-fascists playing super aggressive with a small stack. It is smart to play aggressive with a small stack, you need to risk a lot to get back in the game. With a big stack, however, it is smarter to not play aggressive, and back down until you know you can win, and then trick the small stack to get over-involved. I'm not sure what the lesson is here, but I guess the point is not to get baited into playing hands with near 50-50 odds. We need to only play hands when we have 70-30 odds, because otherwise, it's not worth the risk of letting them get back into the game.