According to ABS CBN News (Dec 5, 2002), Prime Minister John Howard is refusing to apologise to Asian countries for threatening pre-emptive strikes on foreign soil against terrorists who plan to attack Australians.

"You only apologise if you have something to apologise for," he said.

Does he have something to apologise for?

To put his recent remarks in context, an interviewer asked if Howard would carry out a pre-emptive strike on Jemaah Islamiah if he had prior knowledge that the group was about to launch a terrorist attack from a neighbouring country.

Howard replied: "If you believe that somebody was going to launch an attack on your country  national economies recede, tourism dwindles and national leaders hem and haw, quarrel and fight over issues of terrorism.

In short, he and the likes of him have been bestowed the international attention they hardly deserve, and by measures of the chaos to which the world is fast precipitating, terrorism has already achieved resounding success.