Flashback: I Hear America Sinking  Remembering a nation on the
brink of the Iraq war  As for the intelligence failures leading
up to 9-11, Congress has refused to initiate any serious
investigation into the workings of the spy agencies, sparking
speculation that lawmakers are afraid of implicating themselves
in an election year. The Independent reported over the weekend
that shortly before 9-11, U.S. officials and the UN ignored a
message from the Taliban foreign minister that bin Laden was
planning a big attack inside the U.S. The friendly Taliban
emissary was ignored by the U.S. because his alert seemed like
just another of the crazy warnings that were exhausting the
spies.  Foreign Alliances: Despite Tony Blair's rather odd
weekend backing for Bush ("The only decision that's been taken
at this stage is that inaction is not an option"), the U.S.
remains at odds with much of the world. Last week German
chancellor Gerhard Schröder bluntly summed up his position on
any war with Iraq. "The . . . arguments that