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31st May 2011
Cameron & Obama: “Ours is not just a special relationship, it is an essential relationship – for us and for the world.”
Pic below. Cameron?- This one’s essentially for me, Barack, even if it’s on your side of the table
President Barack Obama and Prime Minister David Cameron play table tennis at Globe Academy in London May 24, 2011. Obama received a royal 41-gun salute at Buckingham Palace Tuesday to begin a two-day state visit aimed at ensuring the United States and Britain keep the "special" in their relationship. REUTERS/Paul Hackett
At the Foreign & Commonwealth Office site you’ll find the special sorry, “essential” relationship piece co-authored by David Cameron & Barack Obama.
So after decades of it being “special” our relationship is now deemed “essential”. Or at least by Mr Cameron. Mr Obama, and HM The Queen still seem content with “special”.
I can’t decide whether “essential” is an upgrade on “special”, but I fear it is a downgrade. Is our relationship of the essence or is it only essential in that one’s marriage may become “essential” when it used to be “special”?
It’s all semantic fun and games. It is mainly to appease those who wrongly think the special relationship that Blair & Bush nurtured and developed was bad for Britain and placed we Brits as underdogs – poodles - when really we should have been far, FAR heftier creatures than that – bulldogs, say.
ALL SMOKE AND MIRRORS
David Cameron and the President of the USA, reticent as they might have been at the start, have now come onto the same ground as Blair & Bush; more or less. But they’re not telling you.
Just don’t check out what Israel thinks of Obama or that Netanyahu tells Obama that Israel is what is right about the Middle East. And pay no attention at all to what the Jewish National Fund thinks of Cameron.
But realpolitik has its own momentum.
I don’t for one moment believe that Cameron is insane enough to fundamentally wish to change Britain’s longstanding support for Israel. But I do think he is daft enough to want to follow the vote-winning herd mentality in Britain – Palestinians good & right/Israelis bad & wrong. Leadership from behind. And anyway, he has to do something to keep the wobbly Lib Dems on board.
Rather than just admit – “Hey, you know, George & Tony were onto something serious about our big pals act” - these two leaders feel the western press-pressed need to pretend it is actually more worthwhile doing than G & T used to say it was. History is ready for David & Barack, it is thought by some, and the voters will swallow the new emphasis. Or thus goes the thinking. Until, thinks David and Barack, we can change their minds back to the correct way to state and do things. You know, the honest way. Like Blair & Bush did.
Unless they are liberally conning us while events unfold and they can ride in behind the dynamics and change course, why would Obama and Cameron struggle so valiantly to try to distance our two countries – UK & USA – from their predecessors? Predecessors who said, amongst other things:
BLAIR:
“When Europe and America stand together the world is a better and more prosperous place.”
“In retrospect, the millennium marked a moment in time, but it was the events of 11th September, that marked a turning point in history. It was a tragedy, an act of evil. From this nation goes our deepest sympathy and prayers for the victims and our profound solidarity with the American people. We were with you at the first – we will stay with you to the last.”
“I just want to say this. I want to say it gently but I want to say it firmly: There is a tendency for the world to say to America, “the big problems of the world are yours, you go and sort them out,” and then to worry when America wants to sort them out.”
“We, therefore, here in Britain stand shoulder to shoulder with our American friends in this hour of tragedy, and we, like them, will not rest until this evil is driven from our world.”
BUSH (excuse me for quoting GW Bush at such length. But even I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised):
“The United States has no truer friend than Great Britain.”
(on British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Washington, D.C., May 17, 2007) “My relationship with this good man is where I`ve been focused, and that`s where my concentration is. And I don`t regret any other aspect of it. And so I–we filled a lot of space together.”
“For too long, many nations, including my own, tolerated, even excused, oppression in the Middle East in the name of stability. Oppression became common, but stability never arrived. We must take a different approach. We must help the reformers of the Middle East as they work for freedom, and strive to build a community of peaceful, democratic nations.”
“My job is to lead.”
“America will never run… And we will always be grateful that liberty has found such brave defenders.”
“Americans are a free people, who know that freedom is the right of every person and the future of every nation. The liberty we prize is not America`s gift to the world; it is God`s gift to humanity.”
“If America shows weakness and uncertainty, the world will drift toward tragedy. That will not happen on my watch.”
“We will stay the course, we will complete the job in Iraq. And the job is this: We`ll help the Iraqis develop a democracy.”
“America has never been united by blood or birth or soil. We are bound by ideals that move us beyond our backgrounds, lift us above our interests and teach us what it means to be citizens.”
“I believe that freedom is the deepest need of every human soul.”
“We know that dictators are quick to choose aggression, while free nations strive to resolve differences in peace. We know that oppressive governments support terror, while free governments fight the terrorists in their midst. We know that free peoples embrace progress and life, instead of becoming the recruits for murderous ideologies.”
“If we wait for threats to fully materialize, we will have waited too long.”
“American foreign policy must be more than the management of crisis. It must have a great and guiding goal: to turn this time of American influence into generations of democratic peace.”
“I believe that freedom is the deepest need of every human soul.”
“The desire for freedom resides in every human heart. And that desire cannot be contained forever by prison walls, or martial laws, or secret police. Over time, and across the Earth, freedom will find a way.”
“In the defense of our nation, a president must be a clear-eyed realist. There are limits to the smiles and scowls of diplomacy. Armies and missiles are not stopped by stiff notes of condemnation. They are held in check by strength and purpose and the promise of swift punishment.”
(During a televised address on the night of September 11, 2001) We will prevail.
“We have learned that terrorist attacks are not caused by the use of strength; they are invited by the perception of weakness. And the surest way to avoid attacks on our own people is to engage the enemy where he lives and plans. We are fighting that enemy in Iraq and Afghanistan today so that we do not meet him again on our own streets, in our own cities.”
“The peaceful transfer of authority is rare in history, yet common in our country. With a simple oath, we affirm old traditions and make new beginnings.”
“The presidency is more than an honor, it is more than an office, it is a charge to keep and I will give it my all.”
“Whether we bring our enemies to justice or bring justice to our enemies, justice will be done.”
We will not tire, we will not falter, and we will not fail.
“I hope I stand for anti-bigotry, anti-Semitism, anti-racism. This is what drives me.”
“I will not yield, I will not rest, I will not relent in waging the struggle for freedom and security for the American people.”
“The advance of liberty is the path to both a safer and better world.”
“The deliberate and deadly attacks which were carried out yesterday against our country were more than acts of terror. They were acts of war.”
More George W Bush quotes here – most not even funny! Though there are some which will make you giggle. But plenty more, perhaps unexpectedly, as inspiring as anything Obama has ever said.
RELATED
1. Nile Gardiner: Obama’s Top Ten Insults Against Britain, 2011 Edition
2. White House: President Obama Addresses British Parliament
3. Sky News report:
To conclude, the president proposed a toast to the Queen, but there appeared to be a mistake as the band played the opening bars to God Save the Queen before he had finished.
“To Her Majesty the Queen,” Obama began, but the orchestra – thinking the president had concluded – started playing the British anthem.
Obama continued with his toast, speaking over the music in citing the special relationship between the British and American people and quoting William Shakespeare’s tribute “to this blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England” from Richard II.
“To the queen,” Obama concluded as the music played on.
When the music ended, Obama repeated, “to the queen,” and the audience, clearly confused by the turn of events, delayed a few seconds before applauding.
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Recent comments:
I am staggered by all the hate directed towards our former Prime Minister. I believe that Tony Blair made the Iraq decision in good faith and is most certainly NOT a war criminal. If anyone should be tried at the Hague it should be those in the media for totally misrepresenting the information and facts. The media are to blame for fuelling this hatred as it is purely driven by them. (UK)
