Obama Cameron Schmoozefest Masks Sombre Realities

In truth, the backdrop to this visit could scarcely be more sombre, in Syria, in Iran, or – above all – in Afghanistan, where this week saw a catastrophic act of multiple murder by a rogue American soldier, and the deaths of six young British soldiers in a single roadside bombing. Since he became president, Barack Obama has been drawn into a culture of military threats against the Iranian nuclear programme which appals most well-informed observers; and even in Syria, no-one is completely ruling out another armed intervention.
Yet even the pain of those bereaved in this week’s Afghan disasters is not enough, it seems, to dampen the spirits of president and Prime Minister, as they party together on Pennsylvania Avenue. One paper naughtily described the PM as wearing his hair in “a puffy bouffant”, and looking “as radiant as a young bride”, as he basked in the warmth of the president’s welcome; other British journalists simply fawned, pointing out with evident self-satisfaction that the British Prime Minister was being received with more pomp and ceremony than some other heads of government. LINK