There is now clearly the mother of all rows in progress between President Bush and Tony Blair over the Prime Minister's decision to back the EU defence force proposals. In the euphemistic world of diplomacy, 'severe, frank and intense” talks' means the phone link has gone ballistic. It's hardly surprising, since the proposed independent military planning headquarters is clearly a direct threat to NATO. Bush can see it; Colin Powell can see it; anyone with half a brain can see it; the only person who can't see it, apparently, is the British Prime Minister who cannot understand that even if he has an unlimited capacity to fool himself, he can't fool everyone else. So now he's stuck. Now he knows that he cannot have a foot in both camps without falling down the crack. Now he knows beyond a shadow of doubt what the stakes are for NATO if he continues to support France and Germany on the defence force proposal. To oppose it, however, would be to challenge his core belief that Britain must be subsumed into (sorry, be the dominant voice in) the EU. How's he going to wriggle out of this one? Is the anti-NATO die irrevocably cast?