McCain, please

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.