Desensitized to Nuclear Threat?

FOXNews.com - North Korea Vows 'Annihilating' Nuclear Strike if United States Attacks Pre-Emptively - Politics Republican Party Democratic Party Political Spectrum As late as the 1980's any threat of a nuclear assault would have dominated the headlines of news agency worldwide and sent a fierce, sobering chill down the spine of every American. Today, North Korea threatened to retaliate with an "annihilating" nuclear strike if the U.S. makes the first move in what has turned out to be a throw back cold war era stale mate. Why is it that Americans no longer seem to fear a nuclear war? Do we believe that rogue states like North Korea and Iran do not truly have the capability to hit the U.S.? Is it because Americans feel that terrorists dirty bombs are a much more realistic threat? Or, perhaps it has to do with geography. During the most anxious days of the Cold War, our enemies were storing their warheads next door, in a tiny little island just 90 miles south of Florida. These backyard threats were close enough to strike the nation's capital and most densely populated Eastern seaboard cities, whereas North Korea is not a threat to these areas. Whatever the reason, Americans, or at least the American press, is more consumed with the high price of gas at the pump than they are the overt aggressive threat of a nuclear attack by our present day "Axis of Evil". It seems as though Americans feel that the threat that existed during the Cold War fell with the former Soviet regime.