Change for worse

Wag the Dog, the Dustin Hoffman-Robert de Niro black comedy based on a cover-up of Clintonesque indiscretions with a fake war is best remembered for two prescient scenes.

Dreaming up “official” reasons for the Albanian attack, it is suggested they might be “fighting for freedom and democracy” but Hoffman’s character asks: “Why would they want that?”

The other is when told there is no a war because CIA surveillance units gave no warning de Niro, in an observation recalled after 9/11, says “intelligence” never gets it right.

Now, six moths after the unexpected Arab Spring burst out, it is clear we have misread the situation and the joyous outcome we predicted looks more absurd by the day.

As Harold Macmillan warned: “Things never turn out as you expect, dear boy, and in the Middle East, no regime is so bad it cannot be replaced with something worse.”

(Dr) John Cameron

Howard Place

St Andrews