Can we have an amicable divorce please Mr Obama?

[Infinite Chaos]

America's New Frenemy

As David Cameron arrives in Washington, tension over the BP mess is threatening the cozy relationship between two great allies.

Can this marriage be saved?

When British Prime Minister David Cameron and President Barack Obama meet Tuesday at the White House, they might want to bring along a family therapist, if sovereign nations can make use of such services. The long-vaunted “special relationship” between the United Kingdom and the United States has seldom been more tetchy and irritable.

They have, as the shrinks say, issues. Not just the BP mess and the Lockerbie bomber flap, but also nearly opposite economic policies—Obama calls for taxpayer-funded global stimulus while Cameron is slashing his government’s budget—and the increasingly troublesome dilemmas of Afghanistan and Iraq.
Big Beast

Some have stressed the ideological differences between Obama and Brown and then Obama and Cameron but in reality, we need something very different from the love fest that was Clinton / Blair and then Bush / Blair. We don't want to be the US' poodle: sending our troops to die for the US, tied into one sided "special relationships" while insulted at every turn by US dealings. (How long were the IRA allowed to fund raise freely and openly in the US while they bombed our streets and city centres?)

The feeling of a need to distance ourselves from the US have been there quite a while in many quarters in the UK. I like Obama for his seeming desire to keep us at a distance, he will be (for different reasons than many US posters and commentators will think) the best thing for the UK in that we may finally see the "special relationship" for what it is and go our own way in the world.

Right now, we're agreed on some areas: the need to have an exit strategy and potential timeline to exit Afghanistan, dealing with the budget deficit (although differently from Mr Obama's plans) and dealing with terrorism and the threats of terrorism from the specific places in the world we see right now.

Other good articles on the recent visit to the US -

Real Clear Politics

NY Times

Politico

I don't want the UK to snub the US, I would like to see the BP issue and the Megrahi release dealt with without a snub or insult to a great country like the US but certainly this period seems to be the start of a new road for the UK - and I don't mean towards the EU instead. We aren't the power or industrial nation we once were but we do still have other friends and markets to explore and we are still a powerful nation

 

[PeteEU]

Not sure what you are getting at here.

It is the US (certain senators) that have floated the idea that BP lobbied the Scots to get Megrahi released. They have provided zero proof (as usual one could say). Personally I would welcome an investigation of both the release and the whole case, but I doubt the US would want that.

As for the BP oil spill.. not sure here either what you are getting at. Again it is US based personalities that have attempted to tie BP to the UK, despite BP being a world wide company with 30% ownership in the US.

As I see it, Cameron is trying to regain some sort of honour lost during the Bush years with Blair being Bush's pet poodle following the US all over the globe into conflict after conflict. The lack of respect by the US administrations during the period towards the UK (and before to be brutally honest) has caused tons of problems and that respect must be regained or else there is no relationship. We all remember the Bush snub of Blair during that dinner, and we have ample evidence of the US basically ignoring and demeaning the UK's opinion about Iraq and other situations.

 

[Infinite Chaos]

Not sure what you are getting at here --snip--

As I see it, Cameron is trying to regain some sort of honour lost during the Bush years with Blair being Bush's pet poodle following the US all over the globe into conflict after conflict. The lack of respect by the US administrations during the period towards the UK (and before to be brutally honest) has caused tons of problems and that respect must be regained or else there is no relationship. We all remember the Bush snub of Blair during that dinner, and we have ample evidence of the US basically ignoring and demeaning the UK's opinion about Iraq and other situations.

The emboldened bit is what I'm getting at. I agree wholeheartedly that previous US administrations (going right back to the US threatening to dump sterling assets on the market in the 50's over Suez) have given us many problems. We lost a prime minister then and a booming economy because of our "ally."

What I'm getting at is a desire for the UK (politicians, press etc) to get over the "special relationship" - we need to keep a more watchful eye on the US when it calls itself our "friend" and certainly we need to be much more critical about which US enterprises we involve ourselves with.

I don't blame Obama - he's being more honest than most US presidents about how the US sees the UK: regarding Cameron, I hope he isn't flanneled into fawning over the US as Gordon Brown did when rebuffed. As a country, we need to get over our one sided relationship and be more confident in ourselves. All I'm asking at the end is an amicable end to this relationship - no recriminations and we definitely need a few more PMs here with a lot more backbone and resolve. I'm not a diehard Tory but I hope Cameron sticks to his guns and keeps the push for a more realistic view of our place regarding the US.

 

[PeteEU]

The emboldened bit is what I'm getting at. I agree wholeheartedly that previous US administrations (going right back to the US threatening to dump sterling assets on the market in the 50's over Suez) have given us many problems. We lost a prime minister then and a booming economy because of our "ally."

What I'm getting at is a desire for the UK (politicians, press etc) to get over the "special relationship" - we need to keep a more watchful eye on the US when it calls itself our "friend" and certainly we need to be much more critical about which US enterprises we involve ourselves with.

I don't blame Obama - he's being more honest than most US presidents about how the US sees the UK: regarding Cameron, I hope he isn't flanneled into fawning over the US as Gordon Brown did when rebuffed. As a country, we need to get over our one sided relationship and be more confident in ourselves. All I'm asking at the end is an amicable end to this relationship - no recriminations and we definitely need a few more PMs here with a lot more backbone and resolve. I'm not a diehard Tory but I hope Cameron sticks to his guns and keeps the push for a more realistic view of our place regarding the US.

Well... after yesterdays gaffe about WW2, then I am having my doubts..That a PM of the UK can with a straight face claim that the British was a "junior partner" in 1940 when the US had not even entered the war.... was kinda shocking.