Michael Tomasky: Whither the 'Special Relationship'?
[Michael Tomasky is a contributor to Guardian America.]
My first reaction to reading the Guardian's article about the group of MPs calling for an end to the "special relationship" was: you're seven years late.
If Tony Blair had been a little more concerned about being seen as George Bush's poodle – and had followed the will of clear majorities of his own party and his broader public, and worried more about Britain's worldwide image at the time – then the special relationship would have ended without your side having had to endure the ignominy of participating in the Iraq war.
Obviously, that's spilt milk at this point. Lending the heft of currency to Sir David Manning's suggestions is this notion that Barack Obama is "less sentimental" about our two nations' historic ties. Now here I thought you folks were rather excited about Obama's election. And I see that even as recently as last November – well after the scandalous DVD-gate affair – it was reported that his approval rating in Britain was 82%.
So it's one of those unanticipated ironies that politics and life have a habit of delivering to us. And it is pretty difficult to deny that Obama does not, to put it gently, appear to be much of an Anglophile.
One wonders why. We have no record to consult of which I'm aware, so this is all educated guesswork, but the first possibility is obviously the fact of British colonial dominion over his father's homeland of Kenya, formerly British East Africa. We've never had a president and probably will not for some time have another who in his very DNA is likely to feel more commonality with Kenyans than with Britons....
Read entire article at Guardian (UK)
My first reaction to reading the Guardian's article about the group of MPs calling for an end to the "special relationship" was: you're seven years late.
If Tony Blair had been a little more concerned about being seen as George Bush's poodle – and had followed the will of clear majorities of his own party and his broader public, and worried more about Britain's worldwide image at the time – then the special relationship would have ended without your side having had to endure the ignominy of participating in the Iraq war.
Obviously, that's spilt milk at this point. Lending the heft of currency to Sir David Manning's suggestions is this notion that Barack Obama is "less sentimental" about our two nations' historic ties. Now here I thought you folks were rather excited about Obama's election. And I see that even as recently as last November – well after the scandalous DVD-gate affair – it was reported that his approval rating in Britain was 82%.
So it's one of those unanticipated ironies that politics and life have a habit of delivering to us. And it is pretty difficult to deny that Obama does not, to put it gently, appear to be much of an Anglophile.
One wonders why. We have no record to consult of which I'm aware, so this is all educated guesswork, but the first possibility is obviously the fact of British colonial dominion over his father's homeland of Kenya, formerly British East Africa. We've never had a president and probably will not for some time have another who in his very DNA is likely to feel more commonality with Kenyans than with Britons....