opinion The Sept 11 terrorist attacks on the United States have not only changed global geopolitics, it has also affected domestic political realities. Suddenly tough and stubbornly cantankerous leaders are in vogue.

While US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt talked about "freedom from fear", these leaders talk about "fearing freely".

All key issues are now put on the back-burner - democracy, human rights, corruption, indigenous rights, economic injustices, etc. Nothing is more important than the crisis at hand. Nobody is bigger than Osama bin Laden.