I don't know about you

but I never really relaxed when everyone said the Cold War was over. Maybe I was just born pessimistic, but the thought did occur to me even then when I wasn't really paying much attention, "Well, if there's no Soviet Union in charge of the bombs, who's running the joint?"

Kind of nasty to be proved right in this case:

The west must be ready to resort to a pre-emptive nuclear attack to try to halt the "imminent" spread of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction, according to a radical manifesto for a new Nato by five of the west's most senior military officers and strategists.

Calling for root-and-branch reform of Nato and a new pact drawing the US, Nato and the European Union together in a "grand strategy" to tackle the challenges of an increasingly brutal world, the former armed forces chiefs from the US, Britain, Germany, France and the Netherlands insist that a "first strike" nuclear option remains an "indispensable instrument" since there is "simply no realistic prospect of a nuclear-free world".