Britain’s PM wants relationship with U.S. re-evaluated

[EmilyKent]

Britain’s PM wants relationship with U.S. re-evaluated

By ERIC MARGOLIS, QMI Agency

Last Updated: May 16, 2010 2:00am



Last month, a special multi-party parliamentary group suggested an end to the use of the term "special relationship" and a review of "unbalanced" (read: Onesided) U.S.-U.K. relations.

Britain's new deputy prime minister, Liberal Democrat Nick Clegg, said the time for "unthinking subservience to U.S. interests" was over. Clegg has long opposed Britain's involvement in the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, and Washington's one-sided Mideast policies.

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Proud Brits were rankled to hear Blair called "Bush's poodle," mocked as bootlickers by French and Germans and branded an American protectorate. Many Europeans shared DeGaulle's view of Britain as an American Trojan Horse whose mission was to sabotage European unity.

Britain has indeed been a quasi U.S. protectorate since the Second World War. The U.S. maintains key airbases in Britain with stockpiled nuclear weapons and long-ranged radar installations. Britain's nuclear arsenal, developed with secret U.S. assistance, is said to require Washington's permission before it can be used. Britain's military relies on U.S. intelligence, material, and technical support. Britain would probably have lost the Falklands War without Washington's secret supply of advanced Sidewinder air-toair missiles.


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