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So 43 is doing his bit too. To show solidarity with the troops fighting and dying in his endless war in Iraq, and with their families, George W Bush has given up… golf. When I read that remark, in an interview with the online publication Politico last week, it seemed at first to sum up everything that was wrong with him, and with the Republican party, blindly following him into the miserable dead-end that is Bush’s presidency in its final months.

James Denselow: The US spin on Iraq is to blame the country’s ills on others and refuse to acknowledge its own mistakes

McCain needs to pick his partner very carefully. A heartbeat away from the Presidency matters more when the heart in question will be 72 at the time of the inauguration. Here are some of the suggestions: 1) Tim Pawlenty The…

Dylan Loewe: The Republican candidate now says US troops will leave Iraq by 2013 - a disingenuous ploy that is as unrealistic as his previous position

When the court martial of six British soldiers accused of beating an Iraqi hotel receptionist to death ended in acquittals, some organs of public opinion in this country reacted with anger that these men were ever put on trial in the first place. This was a shameful reaction because it wilfully ignored the real injustice at the heart of the affair.

Leader of Kuwait’s government-in-exile during the Iraqi occupation.

Open Thread: George Bush says he gave up golf in solidarity with the US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. What sacrifices would you make?

Thorsten Benner: Europe has failed to develop a common strategy for building peace in Iraq - but it is vital to do so

Jonathan Steele: The presidential hopeful opposed the Iraq war and spoke sense about Iran, but expect business as usual on the Middle East

Matthew Harwood: The Bush administration is failing to live up to its obligations and resettle Iraq’s refugees in the United States

Matthew Harwood: The Bush administration is failing to live up to its obligations and resettle Iraq’s refugees in the United States

You might enjoy: John B. Judis in The New Republic: Will whites vote for him? Sue Halpern in The New Yorker: Virtual Iraq Tyler Brûlé in FT Arts & Weekend: A city under the surgeon’s knife The Economist: A lama…

The Blair years have escaped proper scrutiny in memoirs. But there are questions relating to the Iraq war that deserve scrutiny now

The Blair years have escaped proper scrutiny in memoirs. But there are questions relating to the Iraq war that deserve scrutiny now

Jackie Ashley: Britain can learn lessons from the scandal of how the Bush administration used spin to sell the Iraq war to Americans

Smoke and the crump of mortars drift from Pall Mall on the warm evening river breeze, following the eruption of Iraq-style hostilities at the customarily sedate Oxford and Cambridge Club. An awards ceremony to promote peace in the Middle East descended into unhelpful fist-throwing when the final gong, for “cutting edge” journalism from the region, went to a female Iraqi hack flown in especially from Basra. “The bloke presenting was Iraqi and starting arguing with someone in the audience,” says Pandora’s lass in the pearl necklace. “He called him a thug and a murderer because of a past association with Saddam’s regime. The guest did not take this sitting down, it went right off. The host had to wind things up over the marquise au chocolat before blows landed.”