The Times Figures It Out, Part XIII
This makes me laugh. Which is good because I’ve been trying to bring it up but found it so crushingly depressing/infuriating I couldn’t really bring myself to. First, the item at issue:
The Times - ‘London’s bridge is falling down’
In a devastating verdict on Tony Blair’s decision to back war in Iraq and his “totally one-sided” relationship with President Bush, a US State Department official has said that Britain’s role as a bridge between America and Europe is now “disappearing before our eyes”.
And now:
Dr Myers’s undiplomatic presentation is extraordinary in three regards. The first is the cynicism with which he expects that a prime minister should conduct British foreign policy. He appears to be surprised that Mr Blair really seemed to believe in the justice of the war in Iraq and failed to demand, never mind secure, any precise “payback” or specific “reciprocity” before endorsing Saddam Hussein’s removal from power. He also chose to place no value whatso-ever on Mr Blair’s personal standing with elite and ordinary Americans alike as a result of having stuck with his principles on Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq. This is a curiously narrow cost-benefit analysis.
The second aspect is what it reveals about the mindset of certain sections, at least, of the State Department. The content of this address was as harsh on Mr Bush as it was about Mr Blair and leaves the impression of a State Department that is aggrieved at its loss of influence in recent years (although it has been somewhat revived under Condoleezza Rice) and regards the White House and the Pentagon as institutional enemies. The implementation of American objectives abroad is hard enough without those working for the US Administration using this forum to muse that it might be better for Britain to end its efforts to be a bridge between Europe and the United States.
Yes, the people at the State Department are, indeed, ignorant selfish fools.
November 30th, 2006 at 1:40 pm
By chance I was doing some reading for Churchill’s birthday today and ran across a speech he gave while receiving an honorary degree. The link’s at my place, but the portion our State Dept. flunkies should study is succinct enough:
The great Bismarck - for there were once great men in Germany - is said to have observed towards the close of his life that the most potent factor in human society at the end of the nineteenth century was the fact that the British and American peoples spoke the same language.
That was a pregnant saying. Certainly it has enabled us to wage war together with an intimacy and harmony never before achieved among allies.
This gift of a common tongue is a priceless inheritance, and it may well some day become the foundation of a common citizenship. I like to think of British and Americans moving about freely over each other’s wide estates with hardly a sense of being foreigners to one another. But I do not see why we should not try to spread our common language even more widely throughout the globe and, without seeking selfish advantage over any, possess ourselves of this invaluable amenity and birthright.
And later: I therefore preach continually the doctrine of the fraternal association of our two peoples, not for any purpose of gaining invidious material advantages for either of them, not for territorial aggrandisement or the vain pomp of earthly domination, but for the sake of service to mankind and for the honour that comes to those who faithfully serve great causes.
It would be nice to think such ideas resonate in the souls of our men of State. Apparently not, alas.
November 30th, 2006 at 2:01 pm
Hear! Hear! Winnie was kinda a Proto-American himself. I have a book, from my Judge-In-Laws estate, Churchhill and (on?) America, a collection of all sorts of WSC observations on we all here. Writing is very fine, fine and middling. I wonder what he would have done with a cut and paste function attached to a primitive line-printer.
December 1st, 2006 at 1:39 am
Of course WSC was half-American anyway, something that shouldn’t be underestimated. He have cut and pasted with the best of them as long as it all came out rhythmical.
The idea of the English language as a way of increasing international understanding was the starting point for the foundation of the English-Speaking Union, the Scottish national committee of which I am, believe it or not, a member. We’re hosting the international congress of the organisation here in Edinburgh in September 2008, and I’m sure we’d make any ninmates very welcome indeed.
During the war, citizens of Hull, my mother included, noted that the Luftwaffe was in the habit of marking Churchill’s radio addresses by dropping bombs on the all-too-convenient city. There was a saying - “get your skates on, Churchill’s on the wireless tonight” - as they made their way to the shelters.