The U.S.S. Cole. Khobar Towers. Osama bin Laden. All of these names evoke the frightening specter of a wave of international terrorism aimed at the U.S. And in the post-Cold War world, terrorism may be the gravest global threat facing America today, many experts intone. Indeed, homeland defense — protecting what was thought for decades to be our safe continental preserve — has become a rallying cry for the Republican Party, which may be able to lavish money on such a strategy if it captures the White House and controls Congress. Full Story