I enjoyed reading alanabit's post:

"We are seeing the last days of the weakest president in living memory."

Eh No alanabit I think that distinction still goes to Jimmy "Peanut" Carter - But I have a feeling that he will surpassed by the current President-Elect

"When the attacks of September 11 took place, he reminded me of a cat caught in a car's headlights."

Isn't that supposed to be "a deer caught in a car's headlights"??

"A strong president would have told the American people (and the world) that it is very difficult to track down terrorist cells."

And the American people (and the world) would have called out in unison - No Shit Sherlock.

"A strong president would have counselled patience and restraint."

And completely missed the moment to galvanise the intelligence gather agencies of the world. He could of course have adopted the patient of Carter (As in the case of the Iranian Embassy Hostages). Or he could have exercised the restraint of a Clinton who exercised so much restraint that Osama bin Laden was left at liberty to organise the attacks of 9/11.

"A strong president would have accepted the help of Arab nations to identify and apprehend the guilty parties."

If memory serves me correctly alanabit there were no offers of help to do any such thing. The Taleban leader in Afghanistan did offer to try Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan provided that the US could prove his guilt in a Sharia Court. I have no doubt at all that that would have been, as you put it:

".....a opportunity to win the confidence of the Arab world"

The only thing about that would be that the US would not have been able to pay the civil damages awarded in a US court after the US had failed to prove guilt in a Sharia court in Afghanistan and OBL sued your collective asses off in the "States"

"Instead we got the "Send the Marines/You can run but you can't hide" Hollywood style jingoistic crap. And where has it got us?"

Well last count it got us this:

- Unprecedented co-operation internationally in the sharing of anti-terrorist intelligence, finance, drug smuggling, and law enforcement.

- Abandonment of a very advanced WMD programme by Libya including a nuclear weapons programme that nobody knew about.

- North Korea back into six party talks on resolving its nuclear weapons programme.

- Exposure of Dr.A.Q.Khan's nuclear weapons proliferation network that nobody knew about

- Exposure of Irans uranium enrichment facilities and capabilities, that nobody knew about, that put Iran's nuclear weapons programme under the international spotlight.

- Caused Syria to withdraw from Lebanon, a country it had occupied for the best part of 27 years.

- Rid Afghanistan of the most repressive, intolerant Government in the world.

- Rid Iraq of a regime that over the 24 years from 1979 to 2003 had killed on average between 154 and 282 of its citizens per day.

"Had one tenth of the resources, which have been squandered on war, been invested in alleviating the poverty, which gave a sewer for Al Kaida to fester in, the world would be have been a safer place by far."

Now let's see $400 billion in aid thrown at Africa over the past twenty years - to what result?? Oh! As for that last bit - According to extensive studies undertaken by the universities of Vancouver, British Columbis and Uppsalla in Sweden, the world today is safer now than at any point since 1945 - go figure.