The world is a dangerous place: but it's also very connected. (Editorial).(Brief Article)(Editorial)

England's Queen Mother died last week at the age of 101. During her life, we fought the war to end all wars--and then all the following wars. We saw the rise of Communism--and its fall. We saw the rise of fascism--and its fall. We saw the beginning of the Cold War--and its end.

The Queen Mother witnessed the widespread adoption of the telephone--and cellular phones. The first cars--and the three-car garage. The Sputnik flights--and digital satellite television.

Had the Queen Mother lived just another week, she would have heard reports that the President of Iraq, Saddam Hussein, had offered bounties of $25,000 to the families of suicide bombers. His offer was sure to further inflame the Mideast. Saddam may be saber rattling in retaliation for threats directed his way by the U.S. in recent weeks, but who can tell?

Recently, Saddam also called upon the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to use the oil weapon again on the U.S. OPEC, the same organization that triggered our 1970s energy crises did not immediately comply, but who can be sure they won't? The Queen Mother, who was alive when the Mideast was originally partitioned, lived past 100 and didn't see the end of the region's problems.

In this dangerous environment, President Bush and the U.S. wages a war on terrorism, opposed implicitly or explicitly by many of the world's largest oil-producing nations.

In the Queen Mother's lifetime, modern technology, including cell phones, jets, satellites, and cars, made possible a whole new way of life and brought the world closer together. Our economy prospers when the world economy prospers. We feel the effects of economic events taking place across the world. To build everything we must, to travel everywhere we must, and to transmit data where it must be to support this ...