Write them off as impromptu indiscretions, or as off-the-cuff remarks not to be taken as formal expressions of policy, but diplomatic time-bombs tossed casually in the past month by his Vice President and his Secretary of State are exposing President Barack Obama to something dangerously close to ridicule on the international stage.

At best Obama is presiding over an undisciplined cabinet; at worst, he is facing mutiny, publicly conducted by two people who only a year ago were claiming that their qualifications to be in the Oval Office were far superior to those of the junior senator from Illinois.

Take Joe Biden. Three weeks ago the VP gave Israel the green light to bomb Iran, only to be swiftly corrected by his boss. At the time it seemed yet another somewhat comical mile marker in a lifetime of gaffes, usually perpetrated in the cause of self-promotion.

But Biden's subsequent activities allow a darker construction. In the immediate aftermath of Obama's Moscow visit, the air still fragrant with cosy speeches about a new era of trust and cooperation, Biden headed for Ukraine and Georgia, publicly ridiculing Russia as an economic basket case with no future.

In Tbilisi he told the Georgian parliament that the US would continue helping Georgia "to modernise" its military and that Washington "fully supports" Georgia's aspiration to join Nato and will help Tbilisi to meet the alliance's standards. This elicited a furious reaction from Moscow, pledging sanctions against any power rearming Georgia.

Georgia could play a vital role in the event that Israel decides to attack Iran's nuclear complex. The flight path from Israel to Iran is diplomatically and geographically challenging - and Georgia is perfectly situated as the take-off point for any such raid.

Israel has been heavily involved in supplying and training Georgia's armed forces. President Saakashvili has boasted that his Defence Minister, Davit Kezerashvili, and also Temur Yakobashvili, the minister responsible for negotiations over South Ossetia, both lived in Israel before moving to Georgia, adding: "Both war and peace are in the hands of Israeli Jews."

On the heels of Biden's shameless pandering in Tbilisi, Secretary of State Clinton took herself off to Thailand for an international confab with Asian leaders and let drop on a TV chat show that "a nuclear Iran could be contained by a US 'defence umbrella'" - actually a nuclear defence umbrella for Israel and for Egypt and Saudi Arabia too.

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