Tim Shipman, The TelegraphWinnie the Pooh, Luke Skywalker and British football hooligans* could shape the foreign policy of Barack Obama if he becomes US President, according to a key adviser.
Richard Danzig, who served as Navy Secretary under President Clinton and is tipped to become National Security Adviser in an Obama White House, told a major foreign policy conference in Washington that the future of US strategy in the war on terrorism should follow a lesson from the pages of Winnie the Pooh, which can be shortened to: if it is causing you too much pain, try something else.
Mr Danzig told the Centre for New American Security: “Winnie the Pooh seems to me to be a fundamental text on national security.” . . .
Oh, bother! I like A.A. Milne as much as the next guy, but tales of Christopher Robin and his stuffed bear are no basis for a consistent foreign policy. What does this clown want to do, pull troops out of the Middle East and use them to invade the Hundred Acre Wood? (I can picture the protest signs now: "NO BLOOD FOR HUNNY!") Appoint P-p-p-p-piglet as ambassador to P-p-p-p-pakistan? Name Eeyore special envoy for global warming issues? ("Doesn't matter. All the polar bears are gonna die anyway") Respond to foreign threats by opening an umbrella and muttering, "Tut-tut, it looks like rain"?
"Yeech! Tiggers don't like Democrats!"
*How do Luke Skywalker and soccer hooligans figure in to it? I don't want to know.