It's not often critics like me get to gloat at Bush's expense, so it's worth enjoying some of the colourful prose appearing in the international press today. The UK Guardian, in particular, lets rip in its leader, saying Bush took the opportunity merely "to burnish his self-image as the square-jawed, undaunted Captain Marvel of the fight against evil." By contract, the Guardian says, Kofi Annan showed himself to be "a real leader, not a pretend one, an international statesman, not a comic strip character reading from a script".

While the Bush speech itself was bit of a fizzer, events immediately following the speech make for interesting reading. Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnaputro has accused the War On Terror of creating more problems than it has solved. More importantly, as The Times reports, "shares on Wall Street fell sharply again last night after Opec, the oil producing cartel, spooked the market with an unexpected 3.5 per cent cut in oil production."

This is exactly the opposite of what the Bush neo-cons wanted when they invaded Iraq. The USA is a gasoline junkie and US global economic power relies on a steady supply of cheap oil. Privately, administration officials have known for over 50 years that one day the gas will run out and their global dominance will end. That is why Bush invaded Iraq and why he will not relinquish power to the UN or anybody else.

As the US becomes increasingly isolated on the international stage, Australia is left looking very foolish. Fortunately for our government, perhaps, we are fast becoming even more un-noticed and unimportant than ever. Well, we've hardly been showing any moral clarity and inspiring leadership, have we? Foreign Minister Alexander Downer responded to Bush's UN speech by repeating the phantom threat of WMDs as justification for the war: "The conviction that states must uphold international norms, particularly in relation to weapons of mass destruction, led Australia to join the coalition to disarm Iraq." How out-dated does that sound? Downer is our version of the Cheney Gimp, but unfortunately no-one is keeping Downer locked in the basement cupboard.

In other news, a group of elite Israeli pilots have publicly refused to carry out further airstikes in Palestinian territories. Their attacks have been heavily criticized for killing many more innocent civilians than other Israeli methods of slaughter.