World

So, you see, Barack Obama is a Democratic president just like Jack Kennedy and LBJ and, right, there’s a war going on in Aghanistan which is in asia, just like Vietnam! So the parallels are just uncanny. Right? Wrong. It’s time, people. for a comprehensive ban on making facile comparisons between Afghanistan and Vietnam. Prospect’s Tom Streithorst is only the latest fellow to warn that Afghanistan “could destroy Obama’s presidency, as Vietnam did Johnson’s.” This seems extremely unlikely. Let’s trot through some of the reasons: 1. 50,000 Americans died in Vietnam. The current figure for Afghanistan? 796. There may be quite a number of troops involved but Afghanistan is, by

Remiss of me not to note that this photograph of the Obamas and the Zapateros has caused quite a stir in Spain. That’s because the Spanish people were not generally aware that the Prime Minister’s daughters, Laura and Alba*, are goths. There’s a law that protects their privacy, you see and so, until the State Department released this photo, no Spanish paper had printed photographs of the girls. Like Marbury, I think they look pretty fine and think the world would be a better place if more politicians’ kids explored entertaining sub-cultures and the like. *Is this a common name in Spain? I mean, sure, it’s derived from the latin

I would like Britain to keep its independent nuclear deterrent, largely because I don’t trust the French. I would also like the USA to have a very large amount of brand new and extremely efficient nuclear weapons – those really big ones that can destroy the earth – and China, Pakistan, North Korea and Iran to have none whatsoever. I am not sure yet about Russia: maybe they could have a few, to point in the direction of the Pankisi Gorge. Israel is allowed lots, India is allowed lots, but I would ask both countries not to use them unless absolutely necessary and in any case to check with me

The news that Iran has a second, secret nuclear installation can hardly be considered a surprise. Nor, alas, is there anything surprising about Charles Krauthammer’s reaction to Barack Obama’s decision to make nuclear proliferation an issue at the UN General Assembly: What did he accomplish? Nothing. This is really quite surreal. As we speak, the Iranians are spinning thousands of centrifuges and developing uranium. The American delegate at IAEA announces that Iran already has enough uranium to construct a bomb. It’s testing its missiles, flouting all U.N. resolutions, as are the North Koreans. And the response of America? The president of the United States — on camera, of course —

Conferences on a Decade of Devolution are ten a penny these days. But the latest at least offered the potential for some entertainment given that not only was Alex Salmond speaking but so too was his principle opponent: Jim Murphy. Many of those who remember Mr Murphy from his days at Strathclyde University and the National Union of Students take a not-on-your-life attitude when the question of praising Mr murphy arises. Yet there’s been a grudging acknowledgement – even amongst nationalists of a certain age – that Mr Murphy’s performance as Secretary of State has taken the fight to the SNP more effectively than any other Labour politician. True, you

Earlier this month I was asked to address an audience about what future there might be for the “decent left”. For those unfamiliar for the term this is the tendency on the left generally associated with backing the Iraq War (though some of the key advocates of this approach did not), opposition to alliances with extreme-right Islamism and the identification of a tendency towards anti-Semitism in some left-liberal discussion of Israel and the Middle East. The Euston Manifesto, published in 2006 expressed some of the thinking of The Decents. On the key issue of  the Iraq War, I was an agnostic. I hoped that the overthrow of Saddam Hussein would

Well that didn’t take long. No sooner had I decried the notion that President Barack Obama’s decision to move (but not cancel) the US’s proposed missile defence shield from eastern europe than, sure enough, up more folk arrive to suggest that OMG! It’s Munich All Over Again! This time it’s Rich Lowry, editor of National Review, who, in a fit of blinding orginality, argues: With just one announcement, the Obama administration undercut two loyal allies, rewarded Russian bullying, and diminished our ability to counter an emerging Iranian threat. If there were awards for self-defeating weakness, this move would deserve a Neville for Appeasement in a Perpetually Threatened Region. Enough with