Oops indeed. The American mid term elections are still to be finally decided but there will certainly be a Democratic majority in the Congress and possibly either a one vote Democratic majority in the Senate or equal numbers of Democratic and Republican senators.

It would be an error to believe that this is all the result of Mr Bush's Iraqi adventure, but the light is finally dawning on the Great American Nation that they have stuck their collective arms into a barrel load of hornets intent on killing each other and on killing anyone else they can drag into their whirlpool of longstanding religous hatred.

Stuck between the rock and the hard place that any conquering army encounters, the Americans are losing soldiers daily in what is actually a low level civil war between two Muslim sects, stirred by Al Qaeda, and bedevilled by that achilles heel of oil and urged on by the Iranian mullahs. If the Americans get out then the civil war will erupt, if they stay, then it will go on and on.

In the meantime the real battle is taking place in Afghanistan and the real enemy of militant Islamic fundamentalism prospers there, in neighbouring Pakistan, and anywhere that has been unwise enough to allow significant Muslim immigration.

So however heart warming it is to see the American democratic machine cranking into action to upset Mr Bush's applecart, the realities for Democrat and Republican alike are that as we in the west struggle to come to terms with the hatred and ingenuity of our external and internal enemies, they have no such hesitation in implementing their tactic of terrorism. Whilst we bend over backwards to distinguish "good Muslims" from "bad Muslims", their religous leaders recruit the next generations of plane, train, limousine and shoe bombers.

In the meantime, business as usual seems to be the UK government's standard response. Perhaps they have a point. Banning the Pakistani cricket team from international competition until they hand over Mr Bin Liner in chains is probably a pretty good move. Pity they don't play baseball.

PS. Must send memo to Pentagon to ask them politely, when they do decide to leave Iraq, to give us a few hours notice so we can trundle our tommies back to Kuwait in time for tiffin.