Beardedbruce, scream NO loud and often, and you may eventually begin to convince yourself. But it's not a tactic that will ever convince me. The whole Guantanamo thing is a cynical construct designed specifically to avoid any risk of the US admin needing to address the questions that your post begs.

WYSIWYG is not alone in believing the earth's axis tilted on 9/11. I saw a US law prof insisting on BBCTV a few nights ago that the world underwent a paradigm shift that day. How little he must know about the world. All that happened was that America discovered what many countries already knew: there can be no absolute defence against terrorism by people determined enough to lay down their lives. And in the subsequent years the US has been learning that such terrorism cannot be defeated by main force.

In all probability the Bush admin doesn't even aspire to victory in that so-called "war," but is simply taking the opportunity to manipulate an uneasy and, to some extent, gullible electorate into surrendering freedoms that have previously been taken for granted. In this respect, as in so many others, Tony Blair is dragging the UK along the same path.

Oh, and the language used by the camp commander and the state department, quoted here, is disgusting. And this so soon after Bush had to apologise for the tone of some of his earlier pronouncements about Iraq. It shames America.