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| Britain |
| UK Mirror: Obama's dogs of war set to snap at Brown |
| 2008-11-07 |
| This time George Bush is the victim, not the perpetrator. Barack Obama's presidential victory was awesome. And the shock in the White House was palpable. Americans repudiated the folly, brutality and incompetence of the Dubya years. This is a moment of history to relish. The stakes were as high as the Berlin Wall, and the election outcome may come to rank alongside that iconic fall. But when the church bells stop ringing, let's have a reality check. General Euphoria is not a reliable Commander in Chief. It is too easy to get lost in admiration, joy and a sense of triumph over a barbarous regime's end. We will all have to come down to earth with a bump, and disillusion may come more swiftly than people might wish. The portents of disenchantment a real ready visible. While Gordon Brown jostles with French president Nicolas Sarkozy to be first to shake Obama's hand, powerful men in the shadows are naming their price for a special relationship with the black man in the White House. The price is high, it is military and it is non-negotiable. Only hours before voters went to the polls, Obama's aides briefed British reporters. The new president will play hardball. There will be no honeymoon in transatlantic relations. Europe will be expected to end the anti-Americanism of the Bush years and "pull its weight". Britain gets to ride point for Nato in the Afghan war. President Obama will demand that Brown commits an extra 3,000 British troops to fight the Taliban next year, when our forces are pulled out of Iraq. This is on top of the 8,000-plus already in theatre, in a war that has lasted longer than the first World War and which does not offer a "decisive military victory", according to Brigadier Mark Carleton-Smith, our most senior commander in Afghanistan. Britain's massively increased military commitment is seen as a key element in a US "surge" of troops, similar to the operation credited with bringing peace of sorts to Iraq. But Colonel Tim Collins, the respected Iraq war veteran, says there is "no capacity or appetite to take part in that surge" among our top brass. No? So what shall we tell the President? He will not easily take 'No' for an answer. And that's when we will see whether the Obama-Brown relationship is something new, progressive and mutually beneficial - or simply a re-run of Bush-Blair. Back in the poodle parlour! In their jihad against al-Qaeda, American forces are gradually extending the war into Pakistan. There are more than a million Asian Britons with family ties there. If the price of pleasing Obama is riots in Bradford and Blackburn, it is too high. |
| Posted by:ryuge |
| #11 I do believe that a lot of people are going to look back on the Bush years with nostalgia before the next presidential election in 2012. |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2008-11-07 19:49 |
| #10 I do believe that a lot of people are going to look back on the Bush years with nostalgia before the next presidential election in 2012. |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2008-11-07 19:49 |
| #9 Brutal and barbaric? There's more of that nuanced, precisely analytical, and coolly rational language that our betters in the "creative" class are so well known for. But pay me no mind, I'm still trying to figure out what was so bad about Nixon. |
| Posted by: Some One Not The One 2008-11-07 16:44 |
| #8 Chirac's ilk's cherished multi-polar world is probably on its way as the US consigns itself to a period of insularity, shrinking economy and reduced military influence overseas. It's what they wished for. I'm sure Europe find Putin, the Sheiks and China delightfully benign... |
| Posted by: Bulldog 2008-11-07 10:28 |
| #7 One of the good things to come out of having a typical third world autocrat in the White House, is that Europe will find out how much their own hyper liberal lifestyle owed to the the "primitive barbarians" of USA. One might say that Europe is like a rebellious adolescent, now leaving his parents home for the first time. Good luck boys & girls trying to live on your own. |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2008-11-07 10:14 |
| #6 Indeed - but where the pain means standing on your own two feet a bit more that's no bad thing. Of course Obama's lame-brain protectionist policies and probable appeasement-based foreign policy will just cause agony for everyone. |
| Posted by: Bulldog 2008-11-07 10:12 |
| #5 Ah, yes. "Be careful what you wish for." I think they'll be saying that a lot over the next four years. All over the world... |
| Posted by: tu3031 2008-11-07 10:09 |
| #4 I feel sorry for our good Brit cousins. Your editorialists are as bad as ours. |
| Posted by: Broadhead6 2008-11-07 09:05 |
| #3 Setting aside the moronic Mirror editorialising, what's threatened here is mostly good for Britain and Europe. Britain has neglected its military strength for decades and is at the moment over-stretched. There shouldn't be any slackening after an Iraq withdrawal which would allow Labour to have another hack at it. As for Europe, those cheapskate freeloaders haven't paid their way for decades. If people riot in Bradford and Blackburn we'll all know where we stand. Let Labour's bleeding hearts try to apologise for that. |
| Posted by: Bulldog 2008-11-07 08:52 |
| #2 Europe will be expected to end the anti-Americanism of the Bush years and "pull its weight". Britain gets to ride point for Nato in the Afghan war. I wish. |
| Posted by: Mike 2008-11-07 08:22 |
| #1 Europe's foolish embrace of Obama will now be rewarded with a US president who sees Muslim immigrants to Europe more favorably than Europeans. Europe is now the enemy. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2008-11-07 08:03 |