SATX John

From my experience, we share much more with ABCS countries than others. I have served with UK forces in the most sensitive of assignments, and they are exceptional officers and NCOs.

At the Strategic level, yes, there are some troubling issues that do present themselves.

Much to the disdain of some posters here, the strongest was Churchill-Roosevelt, other than that Reagan-Thatcher.

I do not think that is Cameron’s fault. He is a conservative dealing with a liberal US government. This difference happens frequently in the special relationship. Bush-Blair etc…

I fully believe the “relationship” is intact and supports the UK policy of maintaining a distance from the continent. Otherwise the UK would just be fully absorbed into the EU system.

HarryTheSpider

SATX John - can you clarify what you mean by ABCS countries?

I'm not familiar with the term

Cheers

HTS

HumphreyC

ABCA? -American, British, Canadian, Australasian

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ABCA_Armies

lj2

Seems to me like he's complaining about being sent for trial for committing a crime... If anyone earns £150k from copyright infringement (promotion of or actually undertaken) then they shouldn't be surprised if/when it catches up with them...

HumphreyC

I think the special relationship exists but its really manifested in the historic cultural and trading links between the two countries. The fact that the States inherited British political culture, the fact that a significant proportion of the population are of British and Irish descent; the fact that the elite were WASPs for much of the 19th and 20th century with strong links to the mother country and the impact this had on the cultural blueprint.

Foreign relations is where it starts to get messy. For instance the level of military and intelligence sharing between the UK and the US is huge but they do not tend to back us over the Falklands. That's because there are other factors in place - the U.S policy is to be neutral and always has been (though they did provide sidewinders and military intelligence once they lost patience with the Argies in 1982). In fact the US ambassador to the UN actually attended a dinner at the Argentinian embassy shortly after she heard of their invasion of the Falklands. Obama is just carrying on the same line as Reagan, Clinton, Bush Jr and Sr (negotiations over the islands have been called for since 1985). Reasons are the Monroe doctrine and the fact that the US needs allies in South America hence support for the Brits takes a back seat.

HarryTheSpider

I'm ex HM Forces and a little sensitive about the Falklands.

That said, as I had to remind myself recently, there's politics in public, and then there's action in private, even if it just appears as acquiescence... Although Obama calling the Falklands the Malvinas might embolden some people to be a little rash...

A UK dealing with another round of silliness in the South Atlantic will be less able to engage elsewhere in the world... Which might not be helpful to the US...

A submarine loaded with cruise missiles is a potent threat strategically... It
Could quickly close a major port, or remove an Argentine airbase from the order of battle...

I'd be curious to see what form of words would come out of H Clinton though if the Argies did anything precipitous... We're only a couple of weeks away from 30 yr anniversary.

robin1234

Aww don't be so hard on the Lad. I like his second, third & fourth hand effusions. I'm printing them out and sticking them in a commonplace book.

Uncle Ebenezer

I thought he was talking about countries who knew their ABCs ... then I realised the US was in the mix, so discounted that, on the grounds of illiteracy.

cindyabs

robin1234

I do think The Lad should be declared a National Treasure, yes.

Martinsb

Have no fear, we will know well in advance when Argentina intends to launch military action against the Falklands, French munitions exports will increase exponentially!

While we are tidying up sovereignty issues, I have just had a telegram from the Spanish Embassy asking if they could please have Puerto Rico back at some point.

robin1234

Then there's Hawaii .. the United States of America, to their credit, did apologise in 1993 for the annexation of Hawaii, but I notice that, nearly 20 years later, Hawaii is still on the roster of US possessions.

http://www.hawaii-nation.org/publawall.html

Xebedee

Its the only US state flag to have the union flag in it.
Not a lot of people know that.

kimilseung

I am amused that today's advert is for a Masters in Diplomacy.

SultanOfSwing

On my page it was "Isreal Under Threat - help Isreal: one small democracy surrounded by hostile enemies"

Should really be - Isreal: you make your bed and you lie in it, but that's another topic, what?