Of course, there are differences. I was alluding to the similarities, but your point that the military side of Cold War was waged by superpowers using proxies is certainly valid. Also, your point that military force is to constitute but one weapon in the coming war bears up, and is also a point I was attempting to make.

The similarities should not be dismissed out of hand. For instance, as you have pointed out, there was intelligence-sharing via the UKUSA Agreement that formed Echelon, not to mention through other mechanisms. Again, though, your point is taken that intelligence-sharing was never complete and total. And I doubt there will be complete and total intelligence-sharing between the partners in the new anti-terror alliance. It is surely going to be of the limited variety, especially since security concerns are still very real. We haven't forgotten about the Wen Ho Lee fiasco.

As in the Cold War, when the USSR did not allow Americans to be stationed on its soil, I doubt terrorists are going to allow Americans to be stationed in terrorist camps and hiding-holes.

You mentioned that there was a level of cooperation and communication between the superpowers who starred in the Cold War. That's true. While there is not likely to be much cooperation, there remain backchannels and underground contacts through which information can flow. I have no doubt that the CIA and other American agencies still have information-gathering assets in Afghanistan, just as they did when America came in on the side of the Mujahadeen under Reagan-Bush.

No, it won't be a duplicate of the Cold War in every respect. It will, however, be in some sense a war of ideology. The ideologies might be described as the far right of fundamentalist Islam with its complete disrespect for laws and international conventions against those national governments dedicated to the establishment of world-wide order. The newly declared world war on terrorism may echo other wars even farther back. I am thinking of the Tripolitian War of 1801-5 against the pirates of the Barbary Coast. Terrorists are the post-Cold War's pirates.

It will be the same, but different. : )