Another Foreign Policy Blunder?

Luck is one of the most valuable commodities in politics, and it has certainly deserted Gordon Brown's government - if indeed, it was ever there in the first place. The latest contretemps over the British Afghan raid to rescue a kidnapped New York Times journalist is a classic example. The go-ahead for the exercise represented rapid political decision making, and the raid itself was a daring and ambitious one. The primary aim - the rescue of the kidnapped journalist - was achieved, but at a terrible cost. One Afghan journalist, a British soldier, and several civilians were all killed. Now the talk is all about how on earth such an action could have been given the go-ahead at all. Once again, a foreign policy action gone wrong is haunting the government when it is desperately trying to regain the initiative in the domestic debate.