Have Britain and France switched places vis-a-vis their view of America?
In Britain, conversely, America’s perceived failure as a colossus may have invited a new contempt: for an incompetent heir to Britain’s imperial legacy. “There is an awareness that America is successor to the British Empire and the global empire that we were a century ago — and perhaps some disappointment in its performance,” says Anthony Browne, a thinker behind the Conservative Party leader David Cameron.
But that may go only so far, he adds: “Britain has invaded Iraq three times and our imperial adventures are indirectly responsible for many of the world’s trouble spots, including Afghanistan, Palestine, Burma and Pakistan. So we are hardly in a position to chastise the United States for screwing up.”
Too true.
Meantime, a chill wind blows from the other side of the channel. Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who vacations in Cape Cod, has nevertheless been steadfast in retreat from Iraq, determined to shed the image of his predecessor, Tony Blair, as America’s lap dog. British officials say his stiff upper lip during his recent White House visit was a subliminal warning: the “special relationship” will be special again when someone else is in the Oval Office and British troops are out of Basra.
But the French are acting all lovey-dovey.
Many in Europe have watched with bemusement as Mr. Sarkozy’s Socialist foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, has entertained the possibility of war against Iran and Mr. Sarkozy talks of France rejoining NATO’s military command structure after an absence of 40 years. Meanwhile, his tax-cutting finance minister, Christine Lagarde, quotes Tocqueville’s “Democracy in America” and admonishes the French to “stop thinking so much,” work harder, earn more and get rich.
Now, that’s the way to emulate America!! Voila!!
