LIKE many people living in south Wiltshire I was pleased to see that President Obama took some time off from NATO business to visit Stonehenge and I hope it brought him some inspiration. Maybe the Druids knew something we don’t know.

I think the President has been a force for good in foreign affairs and the west has been lucky to have him in change where it might have been some deranged evangelist from the American Republican right wing or someone eager to start bombing someone, somewhere, and get stuck into killing people.

President Obama refused to get involved in bombing the Assad regime in Syria after the British House of Commons refused to support the idea.

He has refused to follow the American right wing in starting a third world war in Ukraine, a crisis that has been provoked by the EU and its policy of expansion into eastern Europe.

And he had roundly condemned, along with the British government, the latest Israeli annexation of Palestinian territory.

Hillary Clinton was in favour of bombing the Assad regime, just like Nick Clegg over here. Poor old William Hague, the outgoing Foreign Secretary, will be leaving the House of Commons next year.

While one has some sympathy for him and all his hard work over the years, it is no good pretending that politicians who get burned out ought to be kept in place.

At least Barack Obama has not burned out and for that we should be duly grateful.

Timothy Stroud

Salisbury