The terrorists were not ordered by Afghanistan's Taliban government to attack the U.S., but they were supported and protected by Afghanistan's government, even, significantly, AFTER the attack. They refused to cooperate in eliminating al Qaeda from their country.

At this point, we get a little bit out of the league of Interpol.

Had the terrorists been secretly based or located in a country that did NOT support terrorism, such as European nations, or most others around the world, local police and other authorities would have dealt with it without the need for outside intervention. Such nations have already done this in many cases, with a lot of success.

So the problem is states that harbor or support non-state terrorism, either openly or secretly. Bush came up with a specific policy to deal with this, however risky. So far, most of his opponents basically have no answers at all.