Barack Obama's latest foreign policy pronouncements smack of naivety and, more disturbingly, populist opportunism. That a bantam-weight candidate such as Mitt Romney can so easily see puncture Mr. Obama's impromptu declaration ("He's gone from Jane Fonda to Dr. Strangelove") only further serves to highlight the serious lack of foreign policy thought, much less insight, underlying MySpace's candidate of choice. Aside from revealing himself as international ingenue, Mr. Obama revealed a worrying acceptance within Fortress America of statements which would elsewhere be regarded (at best) as horrific gaffes.

Were David Cameron, for example, to casually advocate unilaterally invading a significant regional ally with no regard for such un-tough concepts as strategy, stability or indeed sense the press- national and international- would hang him from the nearest available lamp-post. It is hard to imagine any senior European politician showing such a devastating lack of awareness, particularly regarding a regime which is hardly currently at its most stable.

That Mr. Obama has been castigated for his capriciousness is deserved. That he has not been for his parochialism is criminal.

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