Now, if U.S. can act with pre-emptive success in Iraq (for president has suggested many times that it can), why can it not do so also much closer to home? But if U.S. cannot do so on its home turf, why should anyone think they can do it in Iraq?

Remember, I do not mean to argue here against U.S. presence in Iraq, but only to critique one particular reason offered for it by president. He has, after all, listed quite a few different reasons for invasion, at different times -- which may or may not be a good thing.

For today, then, let reader take away this lesson in logic of popular discourse -- never reduce a range of many possible options to two only, unless you prepare well enough to show that others do not represent truly logical options. Otherwise, you will have committed either-or fallacy.

This brief lesson in critical thinking has been brought to you by Ophir Gold Corporation.

I could go on and on. The point is this: Life will always have ups and downs. The secret is to flow with tide as best we can. Complaining about what is keeps you from spotting or even creating new opportunities.

In every panic, in every generation, men and women with eyes wide open saw and seized opportunities.

Whether it was George Washington who went on to become president and build his own fortune, or P.T. Barnum who went on to prosper during Civil War, fact remains:

Circumstances don't make you, you make you.

This "bad time" might become greatest period of prosperity for you.

Maybe you just have to relax your demands. In 1941 Bruce Barton wrote, "I have been out of a job three times in my life. Each time I made a survey of my surroundings and discovered that there was work to be done, though not same kind of work I had been doing."

Barton was a best-selling author, Congressman, popular speaker, and founder of one of largest advertising agencies in world, BBDO. He also became a millionaire.

And don't fall for trap that past was better than present. In 1907 famous tycoon John Rockefeller said:

"People sometimes talk as if we older men lived in a day of peculiar opportunity, as if there were no chance today for a young man to do what has been done by my generation of men, as if all avenues were closed, all big things done. Nothing could be more mistaken. Why, time in which I opened my eyes was a midnight of darkness, and this is blazing noon."

A word to wise: Listen, act and prosper.

There are opportunities around you.

Which will you see first and act on now?

This is your time of blazing noon.

Dr. Joe Vitale is the author of way too many books to list here. His latest title is "The Attractor Factor:

5 Easy Steps for Creating Wealth (or anything else) From the Inside Out." Register for his monthly complimentary ezine at http://www.mrfire.com

His Executive Mentoring Program is described at http://www.joe-vitale-executive-mentoring.com/