I remember Tony Blair giving a rousing speech to Congress, and then committing Great Britain’s troops alongside American forces into Iraq and Afghanistan. The Iraq war especially, hasn’t turned out as well as some would have hoped (WMD? Axis of Evil failures as policy?), and Blair was then derided as Bush’s poodle. Both of our economies have tanked, and now Obama seems to be giving them the cold shoulder. Many establishment figures in Britain want to move in a different direction:
…it [sic the Commons Comittee] said the Government should be “less deferential” towards the Americans and take a more realistic view of the relationship’.
Clive Crook has this to say, and quotes Robert Kagan’s piece, which is is insightful:
This recent piece by Robert Kagan was on to something. You seem to get more warmth from Obama as an adversary than as a friend.
‘This administration pays lip-service to “multilateralism,” but it is a multilateralism of accommodating autocratic rivals, not of solidifying relations with longtime democratic allies. Rather than strengthening the democratic foundation of the new “international architecture” — the G-20 world — the administration’s posture is increasingly one of neutrality, at best, between allies and adversaries, and between democrats and autocrats.’
The italicized quotes are Kagan’s. I think Obama is going to be criticized, no matter what he does, as too soft, and too much of a split-the-difference man. He’s been pretty solid on Afghanistan.
Addition: Apparently, after receiving a few emails, I should clarify. Domestically, on many issues, I’m not an Obama supporter. There’s the normalization of the likes of PETA and the Sierra Club in the media (potentially leading to more cart before the horse failures like Copenhagen?), organized labor and teachers unions (trade protectionism, state bloat) and of course, the health care bill. I think he’s inexperienced, and on Afghanistan he took a really long time to make a decision and think things through, the timing still seems off, but if Afghanistan’s going to work, the kind of plan we have going now is leading in the right direction. I’m pretty content with him on this.
Any future president will face many of the same problems with partisanship, the deficit, and the economy and jobs. I’m eagerly awaiting Obama’s next tax and spend solution!
And isn’t the logic of excessive multiculturalism and relativism potentially still at play…and also at play in our relationship with Great Britain?
Related On This Site: Walter Russell Mead’s New Book On Britain and America
Kagan’s new book “The Return Of History And The End Of Dreams“ seeks to challenge Fukuyama’s thinking…does it succeed?: Obama’s Decision On Missile Defense And A Quote From Robert Kagan’s: ‘The Return Of History And The End Of Dreams’
On relativism: Repost-From Virtual Philosophy: A Brief Interview With Simon Blackburn
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