SO WHAT’S WRONG WITH THAT?

The capture by the United States of thousands of centrifuges on board a German-owned vessel, the BBC China, en route to Libya has raised suspicions in Washington and London that Col Gaddafi offered to abandon his weapons programme after threats from America, rather than the lengthy British and American diplomacy vaunted by Tony Blair.

Diplomacy has more to do with (credible) threats than with sweet reason. And “threats from America” are a lot more credible, nowadays.