Where are our leaders?

Rich Lowry says the latest plot demonstrate the correctness of Cheney's One Percent Doctrine: Even if there's only a one percent chance of terrorists triggering a nuke in this country, our response has to be the same as if the attempt were certainty.

I think that we can presume that terrorism isn't going away and that we have to maintain our resolve and efforts to thwart them. The Democrats today represent the return to complacency following 9/11. Our liberal media supports that view. It's quite a victory for the Bush administration that the knowledge of this plot hadn't been leaked and published before the Brits were ready to move on it. One can only wonder what impact the reports in the NYTimes about NSA monitoring of terrorist communications and the SWIFT program have had on our ability to capture these people.

One of the greatest disservices to this nation has been the demonization of George W. Bush by the Democrats and the press. We never have and never will have leaders who make no mistakes, but George W. Bush has defended this country more effectively since 9/11 than and Democrat since Truman ever could. The Democrats and the press have been willing to destroy our confidence in our institutions in order to avenge their losses in 2000 and 2004, and, in Bill Clinton's case, to satisfy his sexual lust.

Update: British writer Andrew Gimson makes the One Percent more concrete:

As we took off from London for New York a few days ago, our three over-excited children asked if there was any chance of the plane being blown up. I explained that the likelihood of that happening was virtually zero, and wondered how we were going to maintain some semblance of order during the flight. One did not wish the sedate American passengers by whom we were surrounded to form the impression that British parents are unable or unwilling to impart the rudiments of good manners.

The rest of the piece is a valentine to Americans, something we haven't seen coming out of Europe much lately, or out of our own media, for that matter.