I love ya, Sorcha, but IMHO you are wrong on this one. And Uncle Jacque, you are guilty of that which you accuse Sorcha of. Yours is simply the other side of the propaganda coin. The simple fact is that we had nothing to apologize for and we didn't. We did use diplomatic language to accomplish the release. The Chinese have long played "chicken" and a pilot payed for it with his life. Both sides agree that this happened in International airspace. We had nothing to apologize for.

As far as giving Dubya credit, I will give him this much. He had enough sense to realize that he was in over his head, and got out of the way and let the diplomats take over. I have the feeling that his solo walk down the drive for his first statement was orchestrated by the hawkish, reactionary elements of his cabinet. It took them about 24 hours to realize how foolish this was. Thank God that Colin Powell and others were able to prevail and get to the business of getting our service people released. So I will credit him for backing off his machoman crap and letting those with a little depth take care of business.

Mick