Britain's special relationship with the US 'just a myth'

Dub13

A senior American official has spoken of "the myth of the special relationship" between the United States and Britain, arguing that Tony Blair got "nothing, no payback" for supporting President George W Bush in Iraq.

George W Bush and Tony Blair
Bush and Blair at the G8 summit at St Petersburg when their private conversation was overheard

Kendall Myers, a leading State Department adviser, suggested that Mr Blair should have been ditched by Labour but the party had lacked the "courage or audacity" to remove him.

David Cameron, the Conservative leader, was "shrewd, astute" to have distanced himself from America.

In candid comments that will embarrass Mr Bush and Mr Blair, the veteran official said America "ignored" Britain, and he urged Britain to decouple itself from the US.

He asserted that the "special relationship", a term coined by Sir Winston Churchill in 1946, gave Britain little or nothing.



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Dub13

I would tend to agree,its my understanding that the term 'special relationship' was coined in World War 2 to describe intelligence information sharing between Canada, the UK, Australia, New Zealand and the US.I just cant see what the UK gets from this relationship I don't think the Bush Administration cares one bit what London has to say.

mike65

What the f uck?

Aside from the weirdness of Dub13 having a conversion with himself I think the only way for the UK to have a special relationship is to spurn the US, make them need London not assume they are on-side from the off.

Mike.

Dub13

mike65 wrote:

What the f uck?

Aside from the weirdness of Dub13 having a conversion with himself

LOL...I like to post the article and then my opinion.

vesp

They have plenty in common besides the language. Not only did they work together to fight Nazism and Communism, when the world faced other threats ( like eg Iraq -the 4th largest army in the world at the time -invading little Kuwait ) who were the main two nations to do the dirty work and get the job done in freeing Kuwait ? Yep, the US and UK as usual.

Fratton Fred

vesp wrote:

They have plenty in common besides the language. Not only did they work together to fight Nazism and Communism, when the world faced other threats ( like eg Iraq -the 4th largest army in the world at the time -invading little Kuwait ) who were the main two nations to do the dirty work and get the job done in freeing Kuwait ? Yep, the US and UK as usual.

and in return, the Yanks managed to kill more British soldiers than the Iraqis did.

Apparantly, American pilots who bombed from 2000 feet got a bravery commendation, the ones that bombed from 1000 got a bravery medal and the ones who bombed from 500 feet got a bollocking for getting in the way of the RAF:rolleyes:

FYI

vesp wrote:

like eg Iraq -the 4th largest army in the world at the time -invading little Kuwait

People say "Iraq had the fourth largest army in the world". Yeah, maybe, but you know what, after the first 3 largest armies, there's a REAL big fu**ing drop-off. The Hare Krishnas are the 5th largest army in the world, and they've already got all our airports. [Bill Hicks]

http://www.chrisglass.com/things/quotes/billhicks.shtml

Lemming

FYI wrote:

People say "Iraq had the fourth largest army in the world". Yeah, maybe, but you know what, after the first 3 largest armies, there's a REAL big fu**ing drop-off. The Hare Krishnas are the 5th largest army in the world, and they've already got all our airports. [Bill Hicks]

http://www.chrisglass.com/things/quotes/billhicks.shtml

Damnit!! Beaten to the post!

vesp

FYI wrote:

The Hare Krishnas are the 5th largest army in the world, and they've already got all our airports. [Bill Hicks]

If thats true, The "volunteeres" are 6th largest army in the world, as they've already got our radio / tv station, and experience with the FARC. . Not to mention a legacy going back over 60 years, when they co-operated with the Nazis.( their rep. Sean Russell died on a u-boat which was on active service ). Not to mention being accredited by both govts in these islands with one of the biggest bank robberies in the world. Plus the wolfe tones have a bigger following than the Hare Krishnas !

Dub13

vesp wrote:

The "volunteeres" are ? largest army in the world, but they've already got our radio / tv station, and experience with the FARC. . Not to mention a legacy going back over 60 years, when they co-operated with the Nazis.( their rep. Sean Russell died on a u-boat which was on active service )D Not to mention being accredited by both govts in these islands with one of the biggest bank robberies in the world. Plus the wolfe tones have a bigger following than the harries k's..

WTF....?