Documents released by Wikileaks suggest that President Obama traded British nuclear secrets to the Russians in exchange for Russian agreement to the new START treaty. The UK’s Daily Telegraph is reporting that the US asked the UK for permission to reveal some of this nuclear information in 2009 but the British refused. It appears the Obama administration may have provided the information to the Russians anyway. This incident raises fresh questions regarding the decades long “special relationship” between the US and UK, a relationship which has served as the foundation for the defense of the western way of life for generations.
The special relationship began to strain shortly after President Obama’s election. He famously returned a bust of celebrated British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Churchill rallied the world against the Nazi and Soviet threats and was instrumental in helping the US shape the cold war policy of Soviet Containment. Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair had presented the bust to President George W. Bush after the 9/11 attacks as a symbol of solidarity between the two countries. President Obama decided he didn’t want it.
The UK Telegraph has a list of the top ten insults perpetrated against the United Kingdom by President Obama. Highlights include when a senior diplomat appeared to dismiss the special relationship, and when Obama suggested the US would remain neutral in any future conflict between the UK and Argentina over the Falkland Islands, sovereign British territory. Papers in the UK have also not forgotten when the Brits were told that President Obama was “too tired” to provide Prime Minister Gordon Brown with a proper welcome.
The United Kingdom has stood with United States as a faithful and reliable ally for almost a century. Through the struggles of both world wars, the Cold War, conflicts in Asia, Iraq, Afghanistan and Iraq again, the US has had no better ally in the world. We share a common heritage, similar cultures and similar outlooks. Indeed, taken as whole, Great Britain and her former colonies such as Canada, Australia and India, have formed the core of our struggles against totalitarianism and extremism around the world.
Why the administration seems to take our relationship with such a staunch ally so lightly is unknown. Theories abound, many of which are not worth delving into here. What is known is that the UK is beginning to understand they may no longer have a reliable friend in D.C. Many around the world are whispering that the US may no longer be a reliable ally and US security guarantees, along with their deterrent effect, may soon become worthless.
This is not a question of whether the US can or should play the role of “globocop”; it is a question of US credibility and understanding our national interests. If we continue to alienate our closest and best allies in an attempt to appease our enemies, we may find ourselves abandoned in our time of greatest need.
Comments
What a magnificent STRAW MAN you have created Mr. Moore.
It's no straw man. The White House has said explicitly that there is no special relationship between the US and England.
There is, of course, but the administration is clueless. When next we have a president who is not a blank slate historically the special relationship will once again be observed.
And yes, it has long been understood that to be an ally of the US in times of trouble is to be in a precarious position. This has never been more true than today.
Pay no attention to the fact the Brits showed Qwackdaffy how to pitch the request to get them to send the "dying" scumbag behind the Lockerbie bombing back to Libya.
Screw the 'special relationship' - the Brits deserve a bit of a smackdown over that alone.
Seconded.
Ken
Impeach
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