The President’s post-September 11 foreign policy diktat – “You’re either with us or you’re against us” – hasn’t done the country much good. In fact, this type of statement accompanied by the administration’s constant bullying have so alienated our traditional allies that the foundation of the post-WWII western alliance may not survive intact.

Bush may think he doesn’t need America’s traditional allies in NATO, that he can get all the support he needs from the former Communist nations, but he is dead wrong. The newest members of NATO are helpful because they desperately need American aid and they want the economic shot in the arm from relocated American military bases. What they don’t have – and what the U.S. needs very badly – is the cash to rebuild the places Bush has chosen to bomb to the ground, places like Afghanistan and Iraq. Western Europe has the money, but they resent Bush's unilateral approach and aren't about to hand him a free pass without some serious conditions.

Psst. Here’s a tip from Rhonda and Jane, Mr. Bush: if you stand before the United Nations and say “we don’t need you; we’ll do whatever we want,” then you can’t say later that those very same member nations have an obligation to help you. Europe doesn’t owe you a thing, particularly when you said yourself it was irrelevant.

Americans, on the other hand, will be paying with their lives and their wallets for years to come. At the very least, Mr. Bush, you should pay with your job a year from November.