Priorities

David Kay, the CIA man who Bush sent into Iraq with a 100-strong team and a mission to find WMDs, has left the country "for holidays". He is not expected to return, even though his much-heralded final report is yet to be delivered. And his team members have mostly been diverted to other tasks.

Meanwhile, the UN Security Council has postponed a vote on endorsement of the latest US plans to set up elections in Iraq. The latest plan postpones democratic elections and the finalising of the country's new constitution until 2005, well after the next US election.

And here's a good election platform for '04 for anybody who's interested - how about declaring a "war on poverty" or a "war on ignorance"? Anybody who has seriously studied international terrorism knows that poverty, lack of education and political repression are major root causes which breed terrorists and allow well-financed fanatics like Bin Laden to manipulate zealous followers.

Last year 10.5 million children died under the age of five. 98 percent were in the so-called "Developing World". At a time when a girl born in Japan can expect to live until 85 and a girl born in the United States can expect to live until 81, a girl in Sierra Leone can expect to live only until 36.