Johannesburg When US President George W Bush launched his military assault on Iraq, he launched a parallel assault on the way the world conducts its affairs. In what history will regard as a dangerous fit of hubris, he trusted his native intelligence. In so doing, he placed the unilateral interests of his country above the concerns of multilateral institutions such as the United Nations. He arrogated to himself and his narrow political coterie the right to arbitrate over world affairs and to determine the destiny of distant peoples. On June 30, he will hand over the remnants of a shattered...