Iran still playing games

Oliver Kamm posts on the IAEA report that concludes that Iran is still not being transparent about its nuclear programme. This is foolhardy in the the extreme. UN Security Council resolutions, most recently NSC 1803, have called for Iran to suspend its uranium enrichment programme and for Iran to fully cooperate with the IAEA.

I agree with Oliver Kamm that now is the time for international pressure as past experience has shown (as evidenced in the recent National Intelligence Estimate on Iran) that Iran does bow to pressure when it is exerted. Some of Oliver's language grates a bit (such as the notion that the UK and US have to 'deal with' Iran...not in the negotiating sense!) and he repeats one or two assertions that I have rebutted elsewhere but his conclusions are broadly right.

Now is the time for cool heads, clever diplomacy, multilateral unity, and for Iran's friends to counsel caution and compliance. It is also necessary to offer Iran a vision of what its place in the region and the world could be. Rather than playing the silly politics of verbal aggression, now is the time to be resolute but generous. Let's coax Iran back into legitimacy rather than provoke it into disastrous and ever more petulant isolation.

Resolving Iran's nuclear programme, whether it is truly civil or otherwise, is a test of whether the world can enter a post neo-conservative era. And Mr Bush, keep your finger well and truly away from the trigger.

Bush's neo-McCarthyism is now failing

I have a contribution on The Independent's Open House today on Bush's failing neo-McCarthyism that I alluded to in the post below.

The article is here.

John McCain must choose wisely

Theodore Roosevelt, Calvin Coolidge, Harry Truman, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, George Bush (Sr) are all twentieth century Vice-Presidents who made it to the top. So it's actually quite an important role in US politics, frustrating as it is for the post-holder. There are some huge names in that list- Teddy Roosevelt, Lyndon Johnson, and Richard Nixon obviously stand out (not all for the right reasons.) You get there by your predecessor finding a stray bullet or meeting his maker. So you can understand why Lyndon Johnson felt like a raven on JFK's shoulder.

John McCain must choose wisely. His running mate will be a huge issue. It will be less of an issue for his opponent.

Just a salutary thought but imagine if George W. Bush hadn't made it to the end of his Presidency. He has been an abysmal President but can you imagine Dick Cheney?