Mr Bush keeps on saying that 'if you are not with us, then you must be with them ( terrorists). This over simplification has irked many leaders, but they have not responded openly, except for the Iranian leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. His response: "We are not with you and neither are we with them".

Another of Bush's favourite is "Good against Evil". So if the terrorists are evil, it needs no guessing what Bush thinks of himself. This actually is the very problem of the US. They are sadly under the impression that whatever they are doing is good, be it the sanctions, invasions, toppling of governments, reneging on treaties, not paying dues to the UN, etc.

It has come to a stage where even good deeds and intentions by them is viewed with suspicion and scepticism by other countries. The freeing of Kuwait is seen not as helping a friend, but to ensure that the oil flow does not stop. The spy plane incident over China left a bad taste when they denied that they were spying even when their plane was on Chinese soil.

Their entry into Afghanistan had nothing to do with the liberation of the country, but to fight the Russians, and what better place to fight an enemy than on someone else's turf. The wooing and rewarding of Pakistan is not that Pakistan has suddenly redeemed itself, but rather the US need to flyover it, as Afghanistan is land locked.

Would Pakistan be treated as such if Afghanistan has a coastline and is therefore accessible to US aircraft carriers? The US must therefore take a step back and look at itself.