Status Check:

1993 - US World Trade Centre bombed Al-Qaeda admits responsibility for the attack. (Nothing to do with GWB or Tony Blair)

1997 - Saddam Hussein withdraws all co-operation from UNSCOM Inspection effort in Iraq (Nothing to do with GWB or Tony Blair)

1998 - Al-Qaeda attacks two US Embassies in East Africa and the USS Cole in the Yemen (Nothing to do with GWB or Tony Blair)

1998 - US President Bill Clinton, without going to Senate, House of Representatives or the United Nations, launches cruise missile attacks on Sudan and Afghanistan, at least one of which is a Sovereign State, a member of the United Nations and formally recognised as such. That was an act of war, it also tee-ed off OBL to the nth degree and planning for 911 commences. (Nothing to do with GWB or Tony Blair)

1998 - US President Bill Clinton is advised by his intelligence services and security advisors that Al-Qaeda/Iraq contacts have been made at high level aimed at future co-operation. Now Bill knows that he has pissed off OBL mightily, so should realise that something nasty approaches - that something might involve input from Iraq if something isn't done about it. (Nothing to do with GWB or Tony Blair)

1998 - US President Bill Clinton makes regime change in Iraq US foreign policy. (Nothing to do with GWB or Tony Blair)

1998 - US President Bill Clinton advises UNSCOM personnel to leave Baghdad and initiates "Desert Fox" series of attacks on various sites and installations in Iraq. He does this without going to Senate, House of Representatives or the United Nations, citing Iraqi non-compliance with existing UN Security Council Resolutions. Everybody in the good old US of A are all quite happy because they are in the middle of putting their elected Head of State through the wringer because of a blow-job - Nice to see everybody had their priorities right. (Nothing to do with GWB or Tony Blair)

2001 - WTC destroyed, Pentagon damaged in series of Al-Qaeda attacks

2001 - US President George W. Bush demands that the Taleban Authorities in Afghanistan hand over OBL and the Al-Qaeda leadership - They refuse, a number of times.

2001 - Unlike Clinton, US President George W. Bush does not start lobbing bombs in all directions. He focuses on the group inside Afghanistan fighting the Taleban and decides to give them support. Result Northern Alliance defeats Taleban and drives them from power - No US invasion as some claim, no act of war as with Clinton, but the anti-war, anti-Bush crowd are up in arms.

2001/2002 - US President George W Bush has House Security Committee with the aid of all of America's intelligence and law enforcement agencies carry out a threat assessment. The following countries are identified as posing a potential threat to the US by means of providing WMD material technology or expertise to an international terrorist group, such as Al-Qaeda, Libya, Syria, Iraq, Iran, North Korea. Note - this conclusion was reached by others not by George W. Bush or by Tony Blair.

2002 - Precedent set by Bill Clinton in 1998, would have allowed GWB to launch an attack on Saddam Hussein and his regime in Iraq, nothing has changed, Saddam is still in violation of UNSC Resolutions agreed to at Safwan, the contacts indicating possible co-operation between Al-Qaeda and Iraq have not been disproved. Iraq has been identified as a potential threat - So what does US President George W. Bush do?

2002 - US President George W Bush goes to the United Nations, result UNSC Resolution 1441, UNMOVIC inspections teams go back to Iraq, US build up of troops in Kuwait and elsewhere in the region to keep pressure on Saddam. (Damn sight more than Clinton did,

2002 - US President George W Bush goes to House of Representatives and to the Senate and requests their authorisation and approval to use military force if required, they agree, again a damn sight more than Clinton ever did.

2003 - With UNMOVIC head Dr. Hans Blix still complaining of lack of Iraqi co-operation (I know Bobert has his little quote but if he reads on a couple of paragraphs he'll find that it is rather heavily qualified) and there having been seven material breaches of 1441, US President George W Bush acts, his precedent for acting is the broken Safwan ceasefire agreement (remember the same reason that Clinton was allowed to invoke without a murmer). No point in going back to the UN although they do try, only to be told by France that France will veto any proposed resolution irrespective. So apart from consulting both houses of Congress, apart from involving the United Nations, apart from putting together a coalition of allies larger than for the first Gulf War in 1991, what has George W. Bush done that beloved Bill Clinton didn't do and get away with without a side-ways look or comment.

Going back to Clinton's attack on the Sudan, if I had been Sudanese President my response would have been a bit different. All the anti-war, anti-Bush types along with the conspiracy theorists and looney-left prattle on about a movie called "wag-the-dog". Ever heard of another movie " The Mouse That Roared"? Had I been head of state of the Sudan in 1998, my immediate response to Clinton's attack would have been to put my country's case before the entire Assembly of the United Nations and declared war on the United States of America - Oh Sudan would have lost in damn short order, but we would not have let America out of our country until after you had fixed everything in sight. Which by the way is what we are going to have to do in Iraq, and that was a known factor long before action was taken in March 2003, what was not known was how long it would take.