“... by exploiting the politics of fear, instigating an optional war in Iraq before finishing a necessary war in Afghanistan and instituting policies on torture, detainees and domestic surveillance that fly in the face of our values and interests, President (George W) Bush divided Americans from each other and from the world,” Senator Joseph Biden said in Washington in a campaign speech on “Renewing American Leadership”.

“At the heart of this failure is an obsession with the ‘war on terrorism’ that ignores larger forces shaping the world and the lives of Americans in this new century: The emergence of China, India, Russia and a united Europe; The spread of lethal weapons and dangerous diseases; Uncertain supplies of energy, food and water;... A rapidly warming planet; The challenge to freedom from radical fundamentalism.”