USA - UK special relationship?

with gorden brown being the first european pm on his way to the white house to meet the
new president - who would say that america and england still have a special relationship -
winston churchill said we did back in the mid 1940's - thatcher and ronnie seemed to get along very
well - and blair was called bushes bitch amongst other things, now president obama
is saying that we have a "special partnership" - not quite what churchill said and everyone else
since - is there some sort of change of heart between the yanks and brits?

I believe it's just a child's love of it's parent...

Maybe just going through a bad patch... We all have them. I'm sure Gordon has a lot on his plate trying to get Freddie's pension money back and he hasn't sent Barack flowers or never calls. They should patch things up at this meeting.

When they part at the airport watch the body language and listen out for things like, "We can always stay friends," or "I'll call you," or "We can do coffee sometime ok?"

Irish Alan,,, once again, one of you has caught me unawares,,, sitting here casually reading your posts, drinking my coffee, blissfully unaware of what's coming. Then in the next breath, seeing the remark, trying to swallow, burping, down the wrong pipe, coming out through the nose, sputtering, coffee everywhere. In all fairness, you really should give a fellow some warning. You know, an appropriate emoticon, then maybe the words "watch out, here it comes". Thanks for the laugh, cheers.

And yes, I do think the Brits and Americans have a special relationship and no, it's not just "two peoples separated by a common language." Bye the way, I consider that relationship to extend to the Irish, God Bless Em.

as people , yes i would say a special relationship , probably because we speak a similar language !!!! or maybe because in our hour of need , the americans have always come to our rescue , taken most of the credit for the victorys and made lots of money in the process . politicaly and financialy i would call it more a virus , than a special relationship . america sneezes , and britain catches pnumonia . recent events have proved this yet again .

and Litlle Johnny Howard from Australia was Bushes lap dog to.

Saint, Wazza, Westerby,,,,,I humbly beg to differ. At the risk of appearing to make myself look important and having been in joint working environments requiring close cooperation at the highest security levels (above Top Secret), I can assure one and all the relationship worked both ways. There will always be detractors that claim one side or the other gets all the benefits. I don't give it any credence. For example, I can specifically remember the immediate response to Britain when the Falklands situation occured. Some may say they were "on the ground" and the support wasn't there, but the "support" did get passed at higher levels and if that was not disseminated or released to the local troops in the Falklands, the US can't help that.
While on active duty, I always felt the US could count on the UK and commonwealth countries if the S**t hit the fan and I got that feeling from other US military types also. Some might say "that's taking them or their support for granted". I don't buy it. I feel like it's more along the lines of family. You and I can argue all day but as soon as you yell fire or help, I'm there.

Hopefully something constructive will come from it and they wont just go around in circles.

westerby wrote:LL, I think your view pre-dates the Iraqi invasion of 2003 and maybe even 911. Alot has changed since 2001. Sorry for sounding so patronising.

Gents,, your interpretations of the current relationship could be the most accurate and I seem to stand corrected. I've been wrong before,,,, I think one time in 1978,,
If the situation is as described, then I, for one, am very disappointed. However, I refuse to let it alter my future feelings, attitudes, or interactions with citizens of the British Isles or Commonwealth nations.
And no, Westerby, I didn't take your reply as patronizing at all. Cheers

From above: "Many Americans have a very soft spot in their hearts for Great Britain. Our relationship goes much further than Brown pulling back from Bush or Obama moving the bust of Churchill. These are just small hiccups in our nations iron clad relationship. Our nations are bound by common principles and ideals that cannot be so easily dissolved. We fought a revolution to be free of British control but we still go to our older brother in times of need and for wise counsel in world affairs. We have a lasting bond that will outlast a single president's misguided behavior."
Mark, Rockwall, Texas, USA
I couldn't have said it better myself. I'll even add we fully enjoyed the Queen's visit during the recent QuadraCentennial celebrations at JamesTown Virginia just 15 miles from my house.
Jaded political scientists would say "One should always remember that nations have to put their own nation's priorities and self interests first, and they always do".
I'm old, naive, and sentimental. I will continue to believe that the reason Americans are buried on foreign soil all over the world was because of a higher calling than self interest. Enough said.

Westerby has made some good points and it does appear that the Americans have taken much more than they have given back to the UK.

During the Cold War the UK was of enormous importance to the US as the UK was the US's channel to European intelligence, but of late this importance has dwindled.

As a people; the UK probably has more in common with mainland Europe than the US nowadays, despite speaking the same language, but most Brits are too dumb to see that Europe is much more important to the welfare of the UK than the US is. Hopefully, when Murdoch is gone the UK population wont be brainwashed to think of Europe as 'not us' by the rags that are passed-off as newspapers in the Foggy Isles, and wake up.

Hm, special relationship, is it dying? i guess it depends on the level of need. I do think that currently it is cooler, because the UK has seen little benefit of late. WW1 and WW2, yes, needed by us, but not totally one sided; USA each time was falling behind on some military technology, needed data to update weapon systems.

USA has sometimes declined to help - Suez? we had to back down due to lack of support. But we declined the vietnam war, so a draw. After the last Gulf war, big promises of reconstruction work for USA allies - where did it all go? Cheney's pocket. But a blessing in disguise, seeing what a mess Iraq became. Afghanistan? We have been there as the second largest force all along; but the window for a decent military victory dissappeared a few years ago; it will take enormous effort (MORE than Iraq) or compromise to settle that. As for Falklands, yes, we had USA sympathy and some minor support, but surely one blunt message from USA to Argentina would have made war unneccessary.

Maybe with Bush out of the way we can develop a more cordial relationship rather than our current Love/Hate balance, depending on if you liked the policies, militaty or otherwise of the last few years. Hope there will always be agood relationship, but inevitably our interests are not always the same.