Where is the "Bipolar Competition" of the Cold War?

Matthew Iglesias posted his opinion this morning that our current situation with the terrorists is not related "...in any even remotely relevant way..." with the Bipolar Competition of the Cold War. I beg to differ!

The bipolar competition of the cold war allowed for nuclear deterrence in the place of battling with conventional weapons. I suggest that this was an extremely valuable service, though we did not recognize it at the time, as it kept the world conflicts to minimal confrontations in lieu of "World War III" - "...IV" - etc.

The terrorists, sans nuclear weapons, are an even worse threat than the Cold War threat, in that they will use conventional weapons indiscriminately and they are not "bipolar" - that is, there is no target for our nuclear deterrence. Therefore, to deter them, we must kill them.

If we don't, and they achieve their goal of nuclear weapons, we will end up in a "Multipolar Competition" with no center to direct our deterrence at. And this can only lead to massive destruction.

We must achieve victory over the terrorists before this happens!