I DON'T know when exactly it became apparent that nobody at all believed in God. Up until quite recently, I thought it was just me and everybody I knew and pretty well everyone I'd ever met in my life who thought it was a load of old rubbish, perpetuated by the arms business for the sole purpose of fomenting one war after another. But quite recently I've realised that nobody at all believes in God, even the people who think they do Or, at any rate, say they do. Rather it is an affirmation of an observation made by the former Panamanian dictator, Omar Torrijos, that the United States is like a monkey."You can play with the monkey," he once said, "but you can't pull its tail."Gavin Esler is a presenter of 'BBC News 24' and author of 'The United States of Anger'. They know this is not foreign policy by focus group, or a dramatic and risky performance by a doomed president.

Secondly, Mr Clinton is reminding Congress and the American people that he remains the commander in chief, capable of taking tough decisions. Thirdly, he is telling America's allies that he has not forgotten America's interests and, even if his wedding vows remain shaky, his promises on diplomatic matters will be adhered to. And fourthly he is telling America's enemies that if they think America is without an effective leader then they are wrong, dead wrong.Americans well understand this. He is an embattled but still astonishingly popular man, sending a variety of important messages by the use of missiles rather than neckwear.The first message is that the United States is a superpower whose interests and citizens must not be put in jeopardy, or else America will respond with extreme force. This is Clinton's echo of Ronald Reagan' dictum to terrorists that "you can run, but you can't hide". Is this Washington political life emulating Hollywood art? And will a sceptical America, which knew Bill Clinton was lying to them over the Lewinsky affair, assume it to be an outrageous and cynical stunt by the devious president his enemies call "Slick Willie"? I doubt it. The latest is that Mr Clinton may have worn a tie given to him by Ms Lewinsky to send her some kind of signal on the day she first testified to the Grand Jury.

But they know this is not Wag the Dog, and Bill Clinton is not a reviled Richard Nixon seeking to curry favour with the electorate. He would have resigned rather than risk American servicemen's lives to polish up the reputation of a tarnished president.Besides, Bill Clinton does not need to boost his poll ratings. He is not running for re-election, and polls have shown his personal approval rating is now as high as 71 per cent since his confession of adultery with Monica Lewinsky. Americans may snigger and occasionally despair at the lurid stories leaked from the Starr investigation. Any president, whatever his politics or personal problems, would have done what Bill Clinton has done.Defence Secretary William Cohen says "the only motivation" for the military strikes was the protection of the American people, and dismisses suggestions they were intended to counter the Lewinsky affair.