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Europe
Is there any value in Britain maintaining a special relationship with the United States
2006-12-05
Posted by:3dc

#23  They don't have the balls to face the internal enemy they allowed in so their country will, in its present form, cease to exist by the midpoint of this century.

Yes, and if you squint your eyes and look real hard, you'll see we're heading in the same direction.

Posted by: Mick Dundee   2006-12-05 23:11  

#22  The Canadians and Kiwis performed with outstanding valor in WWII. Since then New Zealand has gone European. Canada's forces (what's left of them) are outstanding. But their military has suffered from years of neglect. Neither country has the political will to act on the world stage.
Posted by: DMFD   2006-12-05 22:46  

#21  Fifty years ago it was a different story, but now New Zealand is a nation of lefty peacenik sheep bothers. The Canadians still have some spunk left but they need someone to give them a ride to the party.
Posted by: SteveS   2006-12-05 21:59  

#20  DFMD, I take it the omission of Canada and New Zealand is not accidental.
Posted by: RWV   2006-12-05 21:43  

#19  When there's a problem anywhere in the world:

1) The (continental) Europeans pontificate
2) Russia and China ignore it, or try to make money off it.
3) Same (as Russia / China) from the UN
4) Japan debates it's constitution
5) The rest of Asia contemplates their respective navels.
6) The Arab nations blame it all on Israel.
7) Three countries - the US, UK, and Australia take decisive action.
Posted by: DMFD   2006-12-05 19:24  

#18  LOL mac!
Picked a bad day maybe?

I'll trust your average Brit before a die hard scurvy fucking looser.
Posted by: Shipman   2006-12-05 18:18  

#17  As for the Japanese, they would be ground to powder.

Wow, brutally succinct and eerily prescient. No western leader could possibly get away with a statement like that any more [yes, I know it wasn't from a speech].
Posted by: xbalanke   2006-12-05 18:15  

#16  Was it just me, or were most of the truly immature and idiotic comments posted from the US? We, at least those of us for whom English is a first language and are old enough to have studied American and world history before our schools became politically correct, acknowledge a special relationship to England, the country from whom our culture, ideals, and institutions evolved. Granted, we Americans are an ecletic bunch and picked up better ideas along the way whenever we encountered them, but at the root, we are forever indebted to England.
Posted by: RWV   2006-12-05 18:02  

#15  My contempt for these British idiots has no bounds. They have absolutely nothing to feel superior about that has come from their own efforts in the last 40 years. They're living on inherited momentum and you can see that when you watch how lefty and willing to be subsumed in the great EUtopia they are. They're a lost cause so even discussing the "special relationship" is moot. They don't have the balls to face the internal enemy they allowed in so their country will, in its present form, cease to exist by the midpoint of this century. I've studied their history professionally and I can state with absolute certainty that the men who created the British Empire would hold their current descendants in complete and utter contempt. When I was in the UK last year I could not believe how ashamed they seemed to be of their own history. What a bunch of worthless, gutless, uninformed whiners they are. I guess all the good ones either emigrated or died in the wars. Britain--and its component parts, Scotland and Wales, are done. The world is just waiting for the curtain to fall on the last sorry act and judging from the way events are moving over there, they won't have to wait long.
Posted by: mac   2006-12-05 17:48  

#14  But the fried seagulls raining down on Boston were "American", lol.
Posted by: .com   2006-12-05 17:42  

#13  Microwave cavity resonator (for short wavelength radar) and radar tech in general.
Posted by: ed   2006-12-05 17:41  

#12  Well, we did get the chobam armor from them.

And the Jet Engine, steam catapults for aircraft carriers, and a few other choice bits of technology...

Posted by: john   2006-12-05 17:30  

#11  Wonder if Winston is turning over in his grave. It was all for naught? PM Churchill wrote about the attack upon Pearl Harbor -

In two or three minutes Mr. Roosevelt came through. "Mr. President, what's this about Japan? "It's quite true," he replied. "They have attacked us at Pearl Harbor. We are all in the same boat now."

No American will think it wrong of me if I proclaim that to have the United States at our side was to me the greatest joy. I could not foretell the course of events. I do not pretend to have measured accurately the martial might of Japan, but now at this very moment I knew the United States was in the war, up to the neck and in to the death. So we had won after all!

Yes, after Dunkirk; after the fall of France; after the horrible episode of Oran; after the threat of invasion, when, apart from the Air and the Navy, we were an almost unarmed people; after the deadly struggle of the U-boat war - the first Battle of the Atlantic, gained by a hand's-breath; after seventeen months of lonely fighting and nineteen months of my responsibility in dire stress. We had won the war. England would live; Britain would live; the Commonwealth of Nations and the Empire would live.

How long the war would last or in what fashion it would end no man could tell, nor did I at this moment care. Once again in our long Island history we should emerge, however mauled or mutilated, safe and victorious. We should not be wiped out. Our history would not come to an end. We might not even have to die as individuals. Hitler's fate was sealed. Mussolini's fate was sealed. As for the Japanese, they would be ground to powder.


He understood what his fellow countrymen have forgotten. And so their history will come to an end.
Posted by: Procopius2K   2006-12-05 17:05  

#10  Stupid cookies. That last comment was mine (#9)

Posted by: FOTSGreg   2006-12-05 17:01  

#9  Feh! What a sewer. I read down to #52 and couldn't stand it anymore.

The UK is lost with people like those commenters.

Posted by: Omons Phomonter4137   2006-12-05 17:00  

#8  The USA should have declared free trade with England and Australia (and perhaps every Anglosphere nation) long ago. Even if those nations don't like free trade and impose restrictions on their side of things the US should suck it up and give them easy market access.

If anyone is to have an extra benefit in the US economy I'd like it to be England and Australia who have been solid allies for a century and counting.
Posted by: rjschwarz   2006-12-05 16:58  

#7  Who else is going to buy those old MGs /Jags/RRs/land Rovers just cuz they are either a) 'cute' or b)instant snob appeal. and then explain the Lucas electrical sysem ('Lucas, Prince of Darkness') as an endearing feature, not a bug....???
Posted by: Ranchin B. Hard   2006-12-05 16:50  

#6  Well, we did get the chobam armor from them.
Posted by: DarthVader   2006-12-05 16:42  

#5  Nukes?

Without the US warhead designs (UK uses a variant), ballistic missiles (UK uses missiles from a common pool), or submarines (critical subsystems come from US manufacturers), the UK would not be a nuclear power.
Posted by: john   2006-12-05 16:39  

#4  Twas me, Lil Kim.
Posted by: ed   2006-12-05 16:26  

#3  Isn't the real question, "What value does England realize maintaining a special relationship with Scotland?"
Posted by: Lil Kim   2006-12-05 16:19  

#2  Gwyneth removes all doubt...
Posted by: badanov   2006-12-05 16:07  

#1  Yeah. Gwyneth Paltrow won't have anything to complain about.
Posted by: tu3031   2006-12-05 15:59  

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