"Inter Pares"

Mikhail Gorbachev's opinion in today's 'Guardian'1 reflects common sense even when we take into account that both South Ossetian and Georgia are in actual fact being used to further the interests of the United States and Russia for although this is a fact, I would still have to agree with Mr Gorbachev when he says that the interests of Russia do have some legitimacy. In the long term the United States would do well to come to an agreement on South Ossetian and Abkhazia that might be hard to swallow for Tblissi in return for their main interest, the pipeline from Afghanistan to Turkey, being protected. Indeed, it is, perhaps, time for the United States to sit down "inter pares" with both Russia and China and turn its back on the hypocrisy and unilateralism that has been the order of the day under President Bush and his neo-conservative friends in Washington. After the presidential elections in November this will, hopefully, happen and by treating both friends and potential adversaries as equals, Washington will only strengthen its position and deter other countries from flouting international law. More importantly for the United States, however, is the fact that it is already overstretched in Iraq and Afghanistan and if it is to provoke further conflicts elsewhere, we might see the sun setting on the American imperium sooner than expected.
Brunel has become a nicer place since I moved my accommodation away from some young Saudi lads who were hell bent on indulging in just about everything that is "haram" back home. They remind me of a young lad I knew when I taught at Abertay in 2003, who was intent in drinking just about every alcoholic drink under the sun and who, when I met him only one year later in Bahrain was courting a girl, getting ready for the Hadj and drinking nothing stronger than water. No doubt, a similar fate awaits them!
1 http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/aug/13/russia.georgia1