President Bush spoke Tuesday morning with Iraqi interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi and Jordan's King Abdullah, the latest in a series of conversations the president is having with world leaders about Iraq's Jan. 30 elections. (AP via Boston Globe)

Michael Gove: This is not Apocalypse Now in Iraq, but it might be the genesis of hope. [...] There is a particular point at which knowledge appears to end and a huge black hole begins. It seems to occur somewhere in the 1960s. The specific event beyond which most commentators now find it difficult to see is the Vietnam War. [...] The war to liberate Afghanistan had barely begun before sceptics were suggesting that a “Vietnam-style quagmire” loomed. [...] In the past few weeks the number, and weight, of those concluding that the Iraq war has been a foolish adventure has grown. [...] The demand that we should learn from history makes sense. But, sadly, none of the comparisons so far drawn with Vietnam display a full sense of the nature of that conflict, or the one we face now. (The Times [UK])