The worldwide reach of the crisis following the terrorist attacks on the United States was brought home yesterday in several far-reaching respects. The United States provided what it regards as conclusive evidence linking the attacks to the Saudi dissident, Osama bin Laden, leading to renewed expectations of an imminent attack on his Afghan headquarters. President Bush went further than any other US leader in supporting the idea of a Palestinian state; and in important speeches the British prime minister, Mr Tony Blair and the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Brian Cowen, insisted that the world must find new ways to harness cooperation in response to the crisis.
An unprecedented consensus has been built about the legitimacy of a military response to the attacks by the United States, based on its right to self-defence and the endorsement of the international community through the United Nations. Reflecting that in his speech to the UN General Assembly yesterday Mr Cowen pointed out that although Ireland is not a member of a military alliance it cannot be neutral in the struggle against international terrorism. He pledged to help rebuild the UN's moral authority during Ireland's presidency of the Security Council this month. And he emphasised, as did Mr Blair in his speech to the British Labour Party annual conference, that any US riposte to the attacks should be targeted and proportionate, in line with that consensus.
Mr Bush and his administration are very much to be commended for the cooperative way they have handled the crisis so far. Their position is strengthened by having such international support. Among the building blocks of a worldwide campaign against terrorism nothing has been as important as tackling the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, so as to remove one of the principal sources of the grievances that foment such movements and groups. Mr Bush went further than any of his predecessors in foreseeing an independent Palestinian state, alongside a secure Israel, as the way towards resolving that conflict.