Dawkins and others presuppose that Bush flying to Little Rock (I believe Barksdale is the current home of the Big Ugly Fat Fellow) and on to Omaha (command center of the Apocalypse) was cowardice.

From the beginning I thought it was making a less-than-subtle diplomatic point, and that point was to threaten nuclear war. At the time we did not know the magnitude of the attack or the conspiracy, and to the extent that we were threatened with "decapitation" (i.e. a possible coordinated attack against our leadership),

our side was going to 1) protect the leadership, and 2) remind our enemy whom they were dealing with.

A nuclear retaliation would have been of minimal value in dealing with the ragtag miscreants in Afghanistan. But just as the beat cop wears a gun in a holster in plain view, I somehow think that sending the President to Omaha was a polite reminder to our enemy of the powers presidents control.