Accounting time: Who is with us – and who is against us

For months now, President Bush has been declaring that nations around the world had a choice to make. Either they would be with us or with the terrorists. Those who are now showing themselves to be against us, rather than with us, must be held to account.

Topping the list, of course, are the three veto-wielding nations that have long supported Saddam Hussein in the UN Security Council, and who are doing so now: France, Russia and China. It could be that State Department interlocutors have encouraged the intransigence of this Axis of Greed.

There is a similar risk that Russia and China — and even more reliable “friends,” like South Korea and Japan — may perceive Bush’s temperate stance towards North Korea’s nuclear weapons program as an invitation to try to have it both ways: Suffering no costs in their relationship with us even as they continue to prop up and reward the malfeasance of one of the planet’s most dangerous regimes.

Among the other nations who are making known where they stand are Egypt and Saudi Arabia. The US can no longer afford to turn a blind eye to their profoundly unfriendly behavior. That is particularly true insofar as there is reason to believe that Wahhabi enterprises are giving rise to perhaps the most insidious enemy of all: an Islamist Fifth Column operating within this country.

Mexico, our southern neighbor for whom Americans have done so much, can be added to the list of those who are against us. The time has come to make clear who is truly with us and who is prepared, instead, to be with our enemies.