Some political posturing from Labour today.. with Geoff Hoon announcing to a less than enthusiastic Kuwaiti audience that Britain is 'poised for war'..
That's taking British understatement to an extreme.. the whole bloody navy, airforce and most of the troops this country posesses are mucking about in the sand, while this diplomatic charade winds it's way towards the inevidable..
Geoff's main issue is argument against those who would want 'unlimited' time for the inspectors to wander about.. used phrases the likes of 'abdication of responsibility on a massive scale..' and Saddam's 'endless procrastination'.. warning of 'dire consiquences' should this man be allowed to snigger, openly, behind his hand, at this dance the west is performing to accomplish that which he'd effect with a wave of his hand..
Meanwhile..George is suffering.. image-wise in Europe.. The ubiquitous 'Senior American Official Who Has Access To These Reports' says it's astonishing, that nobody sees Hussein as the bad guy here.. One ambassador to a 'friendly' Arab state bluntly reported that the US had become 'the enemy'.. one would put money on that envelope bearing a Saudi postmark..
It's not quite the reaction from the world at large that the Americans had been expecting.. especially in the wake of the World Trade Center incident..
But therein the inherent problem with American diplomacy.. they've become so big so fast.. they've either forgotten the unshakeable pride, perhaps hubris, of the far more ancient European nations, or they've never bothered to pay it much attention.. This oversight has given the Europeans a 'moral ascendancy'.. completely spurious in nature but still a viable force, and left the Americans wondering what it is they've done wrong..
It's not the easiest job George and Tony have taken on here, and it may well spell the end itself for Tony.. but then perhaps history will treat them more kindly than do their countrymen, when all's said and done..