Does anyone remember the band of the Coldstream Guards striking up "The Star Spangled Banner" for a crowd of thousands gathered outside Buckingham Palace after 9/11? In that prevailing mood of "We're all Americans now," who could have predicted how brainlessly Washington would throw it all away?

So far as ther ever was a coalition, it has now been thinned out considerably, with some of the leaders who supported it now out of office. Now the EU Parliament has just called for the closure of Guantanamo.

Soon there will be only Bush and Blair left, and both of these are, to all intents and purposes, dead in the water. Blair in fact has been outmanoevred by his own government colleagues. His chief law officer has said Guantanamo should be closed immediately and his constitutional affairs minister has said it should be closed or put within American jurisdiction. Number Ten has found itself unable to mumble anything in response to either comment.

When this is the support you get from your last remaining friend, it's surely time to change course.