On the fourth anniversary of the 9/11 atrocity, is it too early to talk of a Bush legacy? What vision has the administration of President George W. Bush bestowed on the United States as a result of the terrorist attacks that day?

Without that shattering event to give "definition" to his presidency, in all probability Bush would have become just as ineffectual a one-termer as James Buchanan, the president whose impotent leadership split his Democratic Party and aggravated tensions that led to the Civil War. The country is not as divided as it was then, but state-by-state it's getting there.

The word definition is critical. It is now obvious that the Bush administration is not "about" what he termed the "war on terror." If it were, and if he were prosecuting it with any semblance of wisdom, terrorist movements around the world would be hobbling. Instead they are going from strength to strength on the back of the Bush putsch.