...One of the themes of the post-Iraq period was that the three musketeers of the Anglosphere — Bush, Tony Blair, John Howard — were all in trouble with angry electorates. As we now know, they all won re-election. Meanwhile, the fellows who opposed intervention in Iraq are floundering: Gerhard Schröder is out of office and is now a frontman for Russia’s state-owned Gazprom (‘It’s all about gaz!’), Jacques Chirac is the lamest of lame ducks, and Canada’s anti-Bush Liberal government will lose the election on 23 January. Nothing to do with Iraq in any of those cases — except that Iraq is a useful test for how clearly you comprehend the historical moment. And, as with Ted Kennedy and the Democrats, if you don’t get Iraq, it’s unlikely you’ll get the other currents coursing through the geopolitical scene.

Again, you don’t have to be a fan of the present administration to recognise that if you disagree with the Bush doctrine and Washington’s approach to the world, you better have an alternative to offer. A real alternative, that is, not just the usual transnational placebos. There was a hilarious interview in Der Spiegel a few weeks back with Don Rumsfeld, in which the Germans seemed to have forgotten that they’re supposed to be running the show on Iran’s nuclear ambitions. The US defence secretary observed that ‘all of us have to be concerned when a country that important, large and wealthy is disconnected from the normal interactions with the rest of the world’.

‘The US is trying to make the case in the United Nations Security Council?’ inquired the chap from Der Spiegel.

‘I would not say that,’ said Rumsfeld, mischievously. ‘I thought France, Germany and the UK were working on that problem.’

‘What kind of sanctions are we talking about?’

‘I’m not talking about sanctions. I thought you and the UK and France were.’

‘You aren’t?’

‘I’m not talking about sanctions,’ repeated Rumsfeld. ‘You’ve got the lead. Well, lead!’

‘You mean the Europeans?’ said the bewildered German, still not getting it.

‘Sure. My goodness, Iran is your neighbour,’ said Rumsfeld. ‘We don’t have to do everything!’

‘We are in the middle of regime change in Germany,’ spluttered the Spiegel editor.

‘That’s hardly the phrase I would have selected,’ remarked Rummy.

Well, we didn’t go the unilateral cowboy illegal warmongering route with Tehran. Instead we left it to the European Union and, as a result, Iran will be a nuclear power by the end of the year...