America is not the laughing stock, Bush is if this weren't so serious. As for having a presence in the heart of the enemy don't we have that in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Israel, Jordan, Turkey, and probably a few other neighboring countries. The presence would be called embassies.
The rest of the world knows this has nothing to do with WMD but everything to do with - he tried to kill my daddy and oil.
Now is the time to flex our diplomatic capabilities except I Powell has been co-opted and their is no one else that's believable. On with the crusade!