U.S. Air Force Gen. Richard Myers, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under President George W. Bush, said last night that violent extremism is the greatest threat facing Americans since the Civil War.

"[Violent extremists] have a very long perspective and very extreme view of their religion, and they'll combine their ruthlessness to use terror ... with weapons of mass destruction," he said. "If they can get their hands on something bigger than airplanes, if they can mechanize it, they're going to use it."

Myers, the second installment of the Penn State Distinguished Speaker Series, addressed a crowd of about 250--about half of whom were Air Force ROTC cadets -- at Eisenhower Auditorium.

He said the United States has made it difficult for terrorist groups like al-Qaida to operate by changing the environment at home and abroad.

"But they have not lost their determination and they're the kind of movement that will not be persuaded by force alone," he said. "So we need a long-term strategy, perhaps decades long like the Cold War ... and that's much more economic or diplomacy than it is military force."

The most pressing issue in Iraq, he said, is the need for political coherency among the sects that comprise the country.

"It's a long, protracted effort, and it's not something that's going to go away," he said. "We're going to have to learn to deal with it in ways that are not only military, but in many ways non-military."

Myers said North Korea's claim, made yesterday, that it had tested a nuclear device is indicative of a "very, very dangerous" issue.

"You have a state that reportedly has nuclear weapons and intercontinental delivery vehicles ... it's a dangerous combination in a state that is like no other on this earth," he said. "They're the last hold out of a very diehard communist state, very isolated and very insular, using the only leverage they have, and they have to be dealt with."

Although the U.S. military is currently engaged in a major conflict in the Middle East, Myers said it would also be able to handle a conflict with North Korea.

"If the situation were that serious, we have the resources," he said. "It would not be as operationally efficient or as timely, perhaps, as we would want otherwise, but we still have a lot of residual capabilities."

Penn State College Democrats spokesman Eliot Schmidt said he agreed with most of Myers' arguments.

"I didn't think it was a very political speech -- he went out of his way to make it so that it wasn't," he said. "He provided a very good insider look at the decision making process in Washington."