"To what purpose are powers limited, and to what purpose is that limitation committed to writing,
if these limits may, at any time, be passed by those intended to be restrained?"
-- Chief Justice John Marshall, Marbury v. Madison, 1803

Friday, February 09, 2007

As someone who was born overseas, has spent roughly half his life living outside the country, and still travels quite a bit, I think one of the things that bothers me most about the astonishing ineptitude of our president is the way that he not only pisses off our enemies, he’s turning our allies against us as well.  I described the nature of the transatlantic relationship in great detail here.  By treating our main ally, Britain, like some kind of resource to be used at our will, we’re turning even the most pro-American folks against us.  If you want to see the depths of this burgeoning resentment, take a look at this from a conservative British paper.

It is demeaning for a nation such as Britain to commit its “hard power” — a euphemism for military force — to help another, mightier country when its reward for doing so is, in the eyes of the public, indifference and disdain. If America expects Britain to remain its principal ally, it cannot take its support for granted. It must deploy its own “soft power” — diplomacy, tact, the readiness to be flexible — much more generously.

There is little grasp in Washington of the resentment felt in this country by people who are instinctively pro-American but also rightly reluctant for Britain to be treated as the 51st State, a ploddingly dependable Delaware off the coast of mainland Europe… Each time America treats its most trusted ally in this way, the harder it becomes for Atlanticists to take a stand against those who, in increasing numbers, would like to see Britain put some distance between itself and the US.

It is no accident that Gordon Brown and David Cameron are using cooler language than Mr Blair to describe the “special relationship”. Neither is anti-American, but both are politicians. They see the way the wind is blowing. If America wants these gusts of resentment to subside, it must learn the lessons of this inquest, concede that it was wrong to treat L/Cpl Hull’s widow as it did, and recognise that a true relationship of partners is held together by respect and concession rather than by the expectation of unconditional obedience.

In case you’re not familiar with the Hull incident, read this and this.  My utter fucking contempt for our moron president and his administration grows every day.  Instead of gathering our allies and striking a solid blow against Islamism he’s pissed off our allies, alienated the US, and done exactly dick as far as combating terrorism.

Let the accusations of my liberalism and/or BDS fly.

Update: Let me put it this way.  If you were to look at a laundry list of Bush fuck-ups, there are going to be a number of items which will be virtually impossible to repair.  This is at the top of the list.  Someone competent can come along and undo most of the mistakes he’s made, but this one is rough.  It’s like after your girlfriend catches you cheating.  Even if she wants to continue the relationship with you, and even if you make every effort to demonstrate how sorry you are, she’ll never really trust you again.  Same thing here.  We can get a new president, he can make every overture to the Brits that he can, and there might be a big public show of reconciliation.  But, for the rest of my lifetime at least, we will always be viewed with a suspicious eye.  And the next time we need some help and go to the Brits (or the Aussies or the Canadians), they’re all going to remember that day they walked in and caught us in bed with their best friend.