Biden was talking about bipartisan support for the joint congressional resolution that will give George Bush the world's biggest stick to use in the coming days and months. It will be aimed against what undoubtedly will turn out to be a fairly large gaggle of professional haters, psychotics, political moonies and religious nuts. And from the looks of it, after that, the so-called host countries (love that phrase; makes it sound as though the jerks just stopped in for lunch) that allow these people to operate will also get the payback.

To his credit, Dubya hasn't taken any action yet, and while the main reason is nobody's been sure exactly what to do, a positive side effect is it's kept the muzzle on those parts of the international community that aren't going to like ANYTHING the US does. Not that they won't get plenty of opportunities. Lots hopefully.

Sound petulant? Then I've understated things. As an American (born in New York), I've been on the same rollercoaster of emotions as most, ranging from non-comprehension at the sheer size of what happened to shock as the realisation set in. It's compounded by being an expat because you have the vague unexplainable notion you should be back there.

Then, on schedule, the anger sets in and as the days go by, and more bodies and parts come out of the rubble in New York and the Pentagon, the rage level will make what you're seeing now in America look like a mild snit.

Bush and New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani have kept a lid on this so far by not announcing casualty figures - partially because they're impossible to tally anyway. But once the numbers start showing 10,000 victims, we're talking intense.

It's probably worth a quick time-out here to mention a couple of things, one being that the word "fundamentalist" is going to be part of people's daily vocabulary over the next few months and it's going to be largely negative. That's unfair.

We have to be careful about belting them around because while, at worst, you get, say, an Ayatollah Khomeini, at the other end you get a couple of genuine twinks like Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker whose biggest offence is getting caught in a cheap motel room.

Muhammad Ali and Pope John Paul are fundamentalists. And many other Muslim, Christian and Jewish fundamentalists are fundamentally quiet about it and don't bother anybody - except their kids when they want to have some fun.

The other is we shouldn't have been too surprised this happened, given the assortment of doofs and losers we manage to offend with our foreign policy or lack of it.

In addition, American intelligence gathering in recent years has been about as cutting- edge as a Kojak rerun. Saddam Hussein could probably have dressed up like a pizza delivery boy and blown up the State Department before the CIA got suspicious.

That said, the FBI and other organisations have made quick work of identifying the 18 people involved in the hijackings and beginning the backtrack into their lives and connections. It's where this trail goes that's going to cause controversy, because you can bet it's not going to end up in Sweden.

Already France and Belgium are getting squeamish about lining up for any NATO military actions, although given their 20th century records in this area, they can probably help most by not helping.

They will be the first to complain when the US goes after the host countries, most of which this week were going around proclaiming they had nothing to do with any terrorist activities. Except hiding a terrorist such as Osama bin Laden is a terrorist activity.

The only problem is a place like Afghanistan isn't much more than a dust rubble and you'd want to do a bit more than simply rearrange it, which is why this is going to be a prolonged intelligence as well as military effort.

But common sense and public opinion are going to demand massive retaliation. And for once, the two will coincide.

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