Usa

Everyone needs something to brighten up their day. And Anthony Weiner has once again come up with the goods. Readers will recall that the Democrat politician had to resign from the US Congress two years ago after a technological mishap meant he sent a photo of his penis (or ‘wiener’ in American slang) to all of his Twitter followers instead of to the one woman he had meant to. Initially claiming that his account had been hacked (see here) Weiner then had to admit that the wiener was his (as were a string of ‘sexting’ conservations with young women) and humiliatingly stood down from office (the attempted cover-up being significantly larger than the offence).

We should, I suppose, be grateful to Benedict Brogan for his column today examining some of the reasons for why Britain should become more heavily involved in the Syrian civil war. Grateful, that is, because Mr Brogan's article reveals how pitifully inadequate these reasons are. Here's Mr Brogan's conclusion: The coalition against intervention in Syria appears to have all the arguments on its side. It is, by any measure, a terrible idea, and on current standings the Prime Minister would struggle to secure necessary support in the Commons. But Mr Cameron says he wants to save Britain from international relegation. In which case, membership of the league of front rank nations comes with a price that is sometimes quite awful.

It is more than ten years since I first sat down with members of the Syrian opposition. Back then they included real moderates, but even these didn’t predict a bloodless transition. ‘We will have to unite the country against the Alawites,’ I remember one saying, referring to the minority from which the Assad dynasty comes. ‘Kill them?’ I asked nervously. ‘Or chase them into the mountains,’ he replied. Now, more than two years into the Syrian civil war, there may still be some Alawites but, as Paul Wood points out opposite, there are hardly any moderates. What good opposition elements there were have been killed, have fallen away or otherwise become insignificant since calls for outside help began.

I have been in the US over recent weeks, during the period of the Boston bombings and the hunt for the perpetrators. It may surprise some British readers to know that although American public debate is undoubtedly wider and more robust than in Britain, even America displays denial and deflection when it turns out that the culprits are radical Islamists. I think of this as ‘Toulouse syndrome.’ Much of the reaction to Boston is very reminiscent of what we saw last year after the shooting of seven people in France. From the first attacks on French soldiers until after the third shootings at a Jewish school, both national and international news focussed on the possibility that the lone gunman had been a far-right extremist.

Is it the stupidity of Americans, or the stupidity of people who use social networking sites, that is responsible for the following letter, sent shortly after the Boston bombers had been identified? 'As more information on the origin of the alleged perpetrators is coming to light, I am concerned to note in the social media a most unfortunate misunderstanding in this respect. The Czech Republic and Chechnya are two very different entities - the Czech Republic is a Central European country; Chechnya is a part of the Russian Federation. As the President of the Czech Republic Miloš Zeman noted in his message to President Obama, the Czech Republic is an active and reliable partner of the United States in the fight against terrorism.

Update CBS News in the US are reporting that a Saudi national is being questioned by the FBI. He denies any involvement in the attack In a press conference just now, President Obama has made clear that the Federal Authorities do not know who is responsible for the attack on the Boston Marathon. But it was noticeable that he did not call it a ‘terrorist’ attack. Meanwhile in Boston, the authorities there have denied reports that anyone is in custody—there had been chatter in the US media that a Saudi male was under arrest in Boston. So far, no individual or organisation has claimed responsibility for this attack.

45 years ago tonight, Dr Martin Luther King, Jr was shot and killed as he stood on a motel balcony, aged just 39. Here is the leader from the following week's Spectator: The agony of America, The Spectator, 12 April 1968 The assassination of Dr Martin Luther King at Memphis, Tennessee, on Thursday 4 April has brutally reminded America and the world of the existence of a cancer that is even more menacing than the Vietnam war itself. For the well-intentioned but horribly mistaken imperialist adventure in Vietnam will eventually be ended by American withdrawal. What the conditions of that withdrawal will be, when it will occur, and what political regime will exist in the South after it has been completed, are matters for speculation — and for negotiation.