PROOF, IF PROOF WERE NEEDED.

Why are you looking so smug?

You've seen the Chatham House report? That British foreign policy is in disarray, and that it's time Blair stopped snugging up to American neo-cons, and turned his attention properly to co-operating with Europe? Well, remember that you read it here first.

SMALL IS BEAUTIFUL
I don't want to give the impression that I think that everything about the modern world is incorrect, or inferior, or less enjoyable than life used to be in a mythical golden age.
For example, I can hold in the palm of my hand a small mobile which I take with me on any trip away from home. Should we, say, be coming back from Truro in the dark after a concert and the car engine dies somewhere round the back of Probus, I have only to say 'AA' to my mobile and I am instantly connected to reliable breakdown services.
Marvellous! Perhaps only those who have undergone the experience of crawling about in similar circumstances in the days when one's only hope was a well-disposed passing motorist, or the chance of finding a cottage where they were still up and had a phone, can really appreciate what a comfort this is.

Incidentally, this little beauty is a Moto V220, a model that seems to have been getting a bad press lately. I find it excellent - really mobile; and no, I don't use it only rarely; the weather forecast, for example is very useful. 'The screen is small!' - well of course it is, it's a small phone. Only sad nerds who want to spend a lot of time watching videos on a mobile are likely to be put off by this. And all those extra features - are they what most people really need, or do they feel they have to have them simply because they are there? 'Watch soft porn while you're eating a Big Mac' - one of the last things I should ever want to do.

INTRUSIVE EVENTS
This had seemed a good time to allow myself a few personal reflections of an optimistic kind, but the rowdy noise of world events makes it difficult to resist the temptation to insert a few sour comments on them.
Now that the martial figure of Rumsfeld has disappeared down a stage hatch, leaving behind a strong stench of sewage and cordite,it seemed likely that the calm advice of the Iraq Study Group could help the American administration move towards a more studied approach to the problem of Iran. But no, Bush is unwilling to accept the reality of virtual defeat in Iraq, which is what it is, and bleats about agreeing to only some of the Group's report, which, as they point out, is not a viable approach: it will work as a whole or not at all. He seems to be as unable to listen to sane advice as he was when he went to war.

Are you implying that he should have consulted an obscure old man like you?

I'm merely pointing out that had Bush, by some happy miracle, listened to me and many other obscure people he would not now be facing defeat on all fronts, and Blair would not have to be sent on tour to begin the office work for a rapprochment.

And does Bush read nothing? Does he know nothing of history? Does he hear nothing? Has he not learnt from the past that it is pointless launching a full-scale military assault on a fanatic and tribalised country, that it is always unwise to open a war on two fronts, that all conflict eventually ends in negotation, that.....?


So, where does this leave you, then?

It leaves me in the position of being a citizen of a country whose foreign policy is a disaster, fighting and losing a pointless war for which it has neither the man-power nor sufficient equipment, in pursuit of an end which it is impossible to achieve in this way. The generals who have been saddled with this task point out, publicly or privately, that this is so, and have no better strategic plan than to retreat as soon as this can be done without too much loss of face. What I should be able to feel is warm support for our troops in engaging in a just battle, and this the politicians deny me.

Once again I find myself several cogs out of sync with the myth of the special relationship, and it feels odd.