Pause For Thought
A thought jumped into my head the other day - with all the information overload about Syria.
In President Obama we have a Democrat in the White House and a natural political ally of the Labour Party in the UK - yet Labour is highly sceptical of, if not completely opposed to, President Obama's plans for a limited military strike against Syria.
Barack Obama's plans are also opposed by many of America's Republican politicians - both in the Senate and Congress - even though a Republican President, in the shape of George W. Bush, led his country to war and a full-scale invasion of Iraq only ten years ago.
Yet a decade later the Republicans find convenient 'arguments' for washing their hands of Syria - though not the rest of the Middle East where American foreign policy still has a huge influence over events in Egypt and Israel, for example.
Meanwhile, a Conservative led coalition government in the UK - the Conservative element of which is a natural political fit with the Republican Party in America - is broadly in favour of Barack Obama's plan.
Although there are, of course, a number of 'libertarian' Tories who believe, like their American cousins, that the 'west' should not become involved in what is really a murderous civil war between rival branches of Islam - and that military action will only make things even worse.
Meantime, back to the UK Labour Party which supported military intervention in Sierra Leone, Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq - while in Government, of course - but seems to have stumbled on to a new found scepticism when the party find itself in opposition.
Just like the Republicans in America whose every move now seems calculated to turn Barack Obama into a 'lame duck' President - because partisan party interest in American politics is now much more important than the national interest on this as on so many other issues - such as gun control, healthcare and 'illegal' Hispanic immigrants.
I'm sure there are many other similarities and differences between UK and American politics - but the opportunist nature of how opposition parties work, their willingness to re-write history and turn issues of principle completely on their head - is fascinating to watch.
