Explaining spin, not reality, is what interests television in this war

BEFORE setting off for Belfast, President George Bush met a group of Iraqi-Americans who wanted to talk to him about who should be installed in Baghdad after Saddam got his come-uppance. One of the points they made was that not speaking good English shouldn’t be a barrier to power in the new Iraq.

The president warmly agreed with them, affably acknowledging that some have said his own spoken English isn't so hot. Light laughs all around. The network's White House correspondent, one James Rosen, then laid out the really significant thing about the meeting which was that George Bush, "without any prompting, had said one word to his visitors: 'Soon.'"

Now, either we were being invited to wonder at the fact that the president could utter a one-syllable word all by his little self, or the president was hinting at something. The complexity of the whole thing pushed the presenter of the programme into complete incoherence.