Leo Lane,

Someone of Bush's calibre, eh...pretty hard act to follow.

I've often thought that people misunderestimated George W., and, you know, his dumb act was really just that. I mean, any man who says: "I know that human being and fish can co-exist peacefully." could never be construed as a warmonger...he knows a thing or two about getting along.

Bush was a man who knew his own mind. He once said:
"I know what I believe. I will continue to articulate what I believe and what I believe - I believe what I believe is right."

He also knew what it took to ram the message home to the people: "See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda."
(Perhaps part of Karl Rove's "Propaganda 101" - and something George wasn't supposed to divulge)

George could cope very well without rehearsal - his on-the-spot responses are legendary:
"I wish you'd have given me this written question ahead of time so I could plan for it. I'm sure something will pop into my head here in the midst of this press conference, with all the pressure of trying to come up with an answer...."

And bin Laden was all important - sometimes - like on Sept 13, 2001:-
"The most important thing is for us to find Osama bin Laden. It is our number one priority."

...but not such a priority on on March 12, 2002:
"I don't know where bin Laden is. I have no idea and really don't care. It's not our country."

And, of course, Bush had a very difficult job: -
"You know, one of the hardest parts of my job is to connect Iraq to war of terror."

Really, his own words say it all.

Tess, I have real difficulty with journalists feeding off such tragedies in order to vent their self righteous indignation.

What is it that motivates journalists to scrape round the bottom of the human values barrel? It’s like going through someone’s garbage bin for a story.

The range of apologists we have had to tolerate has been sickening. That you are offended by the actions to erase OBL from the face of the earth is clear. Many are also offended by the satisfaction expressed by the news of his departure. The raw human emotions that we express from time to time are reactions to grief, terror, loss, anger frustration and even love.

We are all diminished whenever such emotions are disproportionate. That does not justify your sickening appeasement of that which has caused so much grief to so many. If the only impact upon your life has been to offend your sensitivity, you are very fortunate.

If you genuinely believe that OBL was less of a bad guy than some others might think, that just puts you at the other end of a spectrum of opinion and you are entitled to that.

You seem to think that because you are offended you have the right to offend those at the other end of the values spectrum. There are some in this country who might agree with your sentiments, I suspect however, there are many more who could be forgiven for seeing you as part of a maladjusted minority. God preserve us from nihilists

I've been re-reading the book, "Believers: Does Australian Catholicism Have a Future?" by Paul Collins and I came across some interesting thoughts that I thought might be appropriate to the topic under discussion here...

Paul Collins points out that " In contrast to Christianity, the other monotheistic religions, Judaism and Islam, believe in "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth." There are many non-violent Jews and Muslims who are committed to peace, but Christ is the first person in history to say that the vendetta and the desire for revenge are totally inappropriate responses for his followers. As the Jewish critic George Steiner says in his wonderful intellectual autobiography, "Errata" the most scandalous thing about Christianity is that it believes in forgiveness, even of an enemy. "Christ's ordiance of total love, of self-offering to the assailant is, in any strict sense, an enormity. The victim is to love his butcher. A
monstrous proposition. But one shedding fathomless light. How are mortal men and women to fulfill it? Here is the real core of Christ's
moral teaching. Everything else is secondary."

Nevertheless forgiveness can seem like weakness, especially within an extreme terrorist context where the 'lex talionis' is seen as justified and even exalted by some Muslims as an aspect of 'jihad.'

This confronts the Christian with the question of how we should respond to outrages like the 9/11 terrorist attacks on New York, and the Bali, Madrid and London bombings. Should we have turned the other cheek? What would that achieve?

Collins tells us that, "Personally, I think it would achieve a lot more that the so-called 'war on terror.' Only a truly superior statesperson would have shamed and isolated the terrorists by saying, 'I forgive you.' This would have had to have been accompanied by intelligent and astute diplomatic and political work to isolate the terrorists and by appealing to the vast majority of sensible, civilised and peaceful Muslims..." Collins adds the comment that:

"Sadly we are not governed by such intelligent political leaders."

No doubt when George Bush dies the delight on the faces of many of the lefties will be undeniable. What a bitter article.

I question the mental state of the writer.

It seems to me Tess you are still absorbed of your hate of all things Bush and Howard and Blair.

It seems you have forgotten Osama Bin Laden was responsible for the deaths of thousands of non combatants in NY one morning not so long ago.

Tell me how George and Tony and John were responsible for that.

That was what bought the goose to prominance along with all those hate filled videos he showered you media and which you showed with such glee or at the very least without condemnation.

Nothing much else was done by looney bin laden.

George and co wipped out his terror camps in Afghanistan. And it seems their destruction of that other arab loon in baghdad might just now be leading to fundamental changes in the mid east.

Tell me how do you feel about the current kiddies labor government's committment to Afghanistan? It's more relevant than raking over the long dead ashes of 10 years ago.

No bin ladan was still active and was still trying to wage his war.

I too was raised with catholicism. I've become irreligious but live as best I can according to The Sermon on the Mount.

I can forgive bin laden his sins and hurts but I cannot come to accept he wasn't responsible for all those deaths.