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The coverage of Hillary Clinton's love-in with her fellow senators has been well received by supportive voices and , and the general view has been that the detail is, as it were, to follow.

But there was a story hidden in the hearing which everyone (me included) rather missed: One of the criticisms of Obama's foreign policy from otherwise supportive people abroad has been that his promised new effort to pacify Afghanistan is fundamentally unrealistic.

Mrs Clinton did not use that word but in a fascinating exchange late in the day - after the newspaper stories had been written - Senator Kerry put it to her that the US needed "a large dose of humility about what it is we are trying to accomplish" in Afghanistan, and urged her to be redouble the thoroughness of the various efforts to work out a new strategy there.

She gave every indication, it seemed to me, of accepting his case. This doesn't mean a U-turn in Obama policy in Afghanistan but it does suggest an understanding that the conflict cannot be won by bringing in extra troops, and a willingness to look at new less ambitious goals.

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