The State of the Special Relationship
2002; Hoover Institution; Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
0146-5945
Autores Tópico(s)Military and Defense Studies
ResumoTHE FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR to the Court of St. J James, Ray Seitz, recalls in his autobiography preparations for President Bill Clinton's first meeting with Britain's then-prime minister, John Major. Sitting in the Oval Office, the president was reminded by one of his aides to mention the magic phrase relationship. Oh yes, said Clinton. How could I forget? And he burst out laughing. The events of September II cast a different light on this joke, as they did on the frivolity of the rest of the Clinton years. Ten days after al Qaeda's attacks on New York and Washington, President George W. Bush told Congress that America had no truer friend than Great This was more than a gracious compliment to British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who was listening in the gallery. Americans, including America's commander in chief, were moved by London's response to the attacks on the United States. Everyone (bar Saddam Hussein) had condemned the loss of civilian life. But whereas, for example, the Belgian foreign minister -- acting as president of the European Union -- was soon talking of limits to [EU-U.S.] solidarity, Blair's anger was unmistakable and his robustness unwavering. The British prime minister spoke of barbarism and shame for all eternity....Are we at war with the people who committed this terrible atrocity? Absolutely. Blair's sentiments were palpably sincere. But they also reflected his intuitive grasp of Britain's national mood: The truth is that the nation, as a whole, clearly did exhibit far stronger ties of sympathetic solidarity with America than did anyone else. According to a Daily Telegraph/Gallup poll taken in early October, 70 percent of Britons supported military action against Afghanistan: They did so even if it meant large numbers of Afghan civilian casualties and despite the risk of substantial numbers of British troops being killed or wounded. So when the following month a Newsweek poll asked Americans whether particular countries had done enough to support the U.S. during the crisis, Britain earned the highest approval ratings. Blair's own popularity in the United States soared to levels rarely if ever enjoyed by a foreign statesman. Equally significant, American conservatives previously unenamored with the British prime minister were suddenly effusive with praise. All of which was highly gratifying to enthusiasts of the Anglo-American relationship -- a somewhat embattled political minority on both sides of the Atlantic in recent years. But, viewed objectively, the practical results of the revivified relationship have turned out to be meager, in some ways plain disappointing. Capabilities and will OF AMERICA'S EUROPEAN allies only France and Britain possessed a significant capacity to assist in the war on terrorism, and only Britain had the will. A British task force was accordingly deployed in the Gulf; British submarines fired Tomahawks against Taliban targets on two occasions. Within Afghanistan, members of Britain's SAS regiment -- without doubt the most skilled special service forces in the world -- performed taxing and dangerous tasks with great success, notably in attacking the al Qaeda training camp outside Kandahar and in hand-to-hand fighting in the Tora Bora region. British forces are still involved in mopping-up operations against the enemy. The pity is that from first to last these exploits have mattered little in the overall outcome. This has been America's war, and the U.S. has fought it according to its own battle plan and almost entirely with its own resources. The military cooperation of the Central Asian states of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan -- frontline but hardly first-rate powers -- probably mattered more at the crucial stages than that of Britain. Moreover, the significance of the 200 or so British soldiers sent to fight by America's side in Afghanistan is put into some perspective by the British Foreign Office's estimate that about the same number of British citizens were engaged on the side of al Qaeda. …
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