Gaddafi Is Right

As Peter Hitchens, with whom we Old Labour High Tories don't really disagree about very much at all (and who certainly thinks that we should once again be a major parliamentary force), explains:

Colonel Gaddafi’s comical rage at the United Nations ought to remind us that the UN is obliged to take unhinged despots of this kind seriously, and provides them with a surprising amount of power and influence. This is one of many reasons why the UN should be swiftly wound up.

Then again, we might recall how the fatuous supporters of the Iraq War (some still exist, amazingly) claimed that his decision to abandon his completely non-existent Weapons of Mass Destruction showed that toppling Saddam had put the fear of Uncle Sam into the hearts of all Islamic tyrants.

The same people now rave in a lunatic way about attacking Iran and Pakistan, countries which actually learned the opposite lesson – that Washington will leave you alone only if you have the Bomb.

Then there’s the ridiculous claim America is somehow angry with us for letting Abdelbaset Al Megrahi (who plainly had nothing to do with the Lockerbie outrage) out of jail. This is supposed to be behind Barack Obama’s unwillingness to meet Gordon Brown for more than five minutes.

If this were true, it would be monstrous. Those who are desperate to blame every bad thing in the world on Gordon Brown seem to have let political partisanship cancel out patriotism. How dare Mr Obama snub us over the release of one innocent man – when more than 200 of our soldiers have died fighting America’s war in Afghanistan?

Actually, that’s the real problem.

Mr Obama snubbed Britain, not Mr Brown. To him, we are an unimportant European country which has nothing to offer him. He’s probably forgotten we even have troops in Afghanistan – another reason we should pull them out.