Daily Rant - International Relations!
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Dear ConvinceYourMom.com, My wife, Barbara, and I have been entranced by everything American since our teens - given that our own children are now grown up, that’s a very long time! A few years ago we jumped at the opportunity to live and work in the US, and spent a very happy period getting to know your spectacular country and its people. We returned to the UK with wonderful memories and, I believe, with a pretty reasonable understanding of what makes American politics tick. How things have changed in just four years. Since our return we have observed from afar, with increasing bewilderment, the total disintegration of confidence in the world’s greatest democracy. We retain a huge amount of respect for the US and the American people, and it's painful for us to see how fast the long-term affection between our countries is eroding. Even worse and even more disturbingly, the rest of the world seems to be following suit - at "street level" the US is becoming a pariah. From what we observe, discuss, and read in our newspapers the majority of the UK has turned against the US and as a result the popularity of our own government is slipping badly. Prime Minister Blair is doing his best to marginalize the issue, but I'm afraid that it will take a major turnaround for him to lose the 'poodle' tag that has dogged him since he nailed his flag firmly to the Bush mast. At a personal level our confidence in America’s ability to be the inspiration for the rest of the free world is destroyed. We never believed that war with Iraq was necessary or could ever work and always felt that the vested interests of the leading players in the US Administration totally negated any integrity or morality in the decision to invade. We have no love for Saddam, but nor do we for Gadaffi, Mugabe or Kim Chong-il. To listen to your leaders telling the world that the need to invade Iraq was only in the interests of world security was breathtaking in its hypocrisy. But our biggest concern is that the British (and probably European) 'man in the street' is turning against Americans in general rather than focussing on the current US Administration. As in every country education standards vary enormously and a large part of our population isn't particularly well read. Now that some of our gutter press has taken to attacking 'red-neck' American attitudes rather than Bush himself it’s likely that we are creating stereotyping that is going to be hard to change. So where does that leave our respective countries? We are both nearing elections that will define our relationship with the rest of the World for far longer than the four years of the next term of office. In the UK in spite of his otherwise generally good leadership, there is a real chance that Prime Minister Blair’s relationship with Bush will cost him his job. Unfortunately the mood of America still seems to ignore the problems that the current Administration has caused, and it’s with great regret that we see another Republican result as being very likely. We fear that another term of a Bush Administration will cost the US and therefore the rest of the world dearly. We hope that even at this late stage America will come to its senses. Signed, Roy F. |
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