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McCain, please

Wednesday, 6th February 2008

The Spectator on why John McCain should be the next US President

Why have the US primaries been so gripping? Partly because they are suffused with an optimism and energy that is conspicuously lacking from domestic British politics; partly because the world cannot wait for the Bush era to reach its bleak conclusion; partly because the contest has been a rollercoaster ride, with a nail-biting finish still in prospect.

But this year’s presidential race is more than an exercise in political theatre. Like it or not, America is also engaged in an existential war with fundamentalist Islam that affects all of us. It follows — although it is easily forgotten — that the 2008 race is, at heart, a wartime election.

In Iraq, America, Britain and the liberated Iraqis themselves are engaged in a struggle against an enemy that is as ruthless as it is ambitious. If the next president is resolute and capitalises on the success of the Petraeus surge, then Iraq could, in time, become a functioning, pluralistic, democratic state.

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John E Morrissey

February 11th, 2008 1:09am

A Brit visiting here in Florida told me that he and most Brits were outraged at the Guantanamo prison camps,and felt that it was a source of alienation between our two nations.When asked how these same Brits felt about Vincenamaros,answer came there none,a blank look substituting for comment.So a prison in Cuba for 200 or 300 of the most vicious murderers the world has ever known, where they are treated far better than they would have been in their home countries proves to you that Americans are heartless,but a prison on the same Island where a dictator has for the past forty years held tens of thousands, with thousands of summary execution and real torture is beneath notice.In the words of Jack Nicholson, "You can 't handle the truth".

william walsh

February 26th, 2008 4:09pm

Its nice to see other people who understand we are in the beginning of WWIII, unless we somehow can stop these muslim terrorists soon. History does not always repeat, but in 1939 if the French army and air force which outnumbered the Germans, whose army was busy invading Poland, had invaded Germany in Sept 1939 there might have been a fast end to the beginning of wwii

JD

August 1st, 2008 5:15pm

Surely you jest.

Diary

Rani Singh

I’ve just emerged from the gym, winding down after a day’s writing, when my son Sukhraj calls, alerting me to sudden news of explosions and fatalities in Mumbai.