I remember it well. August 1998. Cynicism about politics in the US seemed to be at an all time high, what with the Lewinski thing and all that. There'd been air strikes on Al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan and a suspected chemical facility in The Sudan.

Al-Who? Osama Bin What? Yeah.

It now seems that perhaps this was a highly appropriate response to an increasingly dangerous problem. The Guardian had this to say:

"The cynics will say that President Clinton has done what all American leaders do when facing a personal political crisis at home--create a foreign policy diversion.... But this is not a Hollywood script like 'Wag The Dog.'

This is a modern post-Cold War conflict.... For Mr. Clinton the firm action against those who have taken American and other lives is a clear way of demonstrating that the institution of the American presidency is about much more than the first DNA test taken at the White House."

Quite. What is most striking about this particular analysis (and the clarity of it really surprises me) is how it was at odd with the carping voices I remember from that period. Most people saw the airstrikes as a diversion from Monicagate - including the Republican majority in Congress.

I'm looking forward to the Commission reporting on the preventability or otherwise of 9/11. Particularly if the serious allegations carried in Time in August 2002 (which this cheapskate read in a dentist's waiting room in Eugene, OR) are taken seriously.

I strongly suspect that the transition period between Clinton and Bush marked the window in which 9/11 became possible - the change from "small" foreign policy adventures as characterised by the Clinton era to the "big" initiatives such as the National Missile Defence meant that Al-Qaeda became far less of a priority: still taken seriously, but overshadowed.

I think that the best anti-Bush poster imaginable would be a picture of the WTC in flames with a picture of Bush smirking and "it happened on his watch" as the caption.

It's not all that clever to make capital out of people dying, but then I'd hardly be the first: would I?