Conservative “analysts” are worried, as well they should be, that the British lion is no longer willing to play up, and play the game. A week before the election, the Washington Post could already read the handwriting on the wall:
“the overarching result is already clear: A stalwart U.S. ally is growing weaker, more inwardly focused and less willing or able to join in common endeavors.”
Now that the ax has fallen, Max Boot groans helplessly as he contemplates David Cameron, the UK’s once and future prime minister:
“Far from pursuing a Churchillian or Thacherite foreign policy, he is a Randian—as in Rand Paul, not the Rand Corp. or Ayn Rand. Or, as he would have been known in the 19th century, he is a “Little Englander”—Britain’s version of isolationists.”
If Max wants points from me for knowing about “Rand Corp.” or Ayn Rand, or the term “Little Englander,” well, he isn’t going to get them. The American Conservative’s Daniel Larison thinks that both Max and the Post are getting a little hysterical, but I think the right-wingers are onto something. Willy-nilly, often for not very good reasons, the Free World, as we used to call it, is getting a little tired of the War on Terror.
It must be galling for the Right to realize, with all their huffing and puffing, that America’s policy in Eastern Europe is going to be decided largely by the coalition of the unwilling—the UK, France, and Germany—who basically run Europe and who have or are deciding that they were damn fools to think that George Bush was God, or anything close to it. I guess that, back in the day, the Brits really thought the U.S. could run the world. Well, it was a terrible idea from the get-go, and putting it into practice proved an absolute disaster. The elites are still lying about it since it was their idea, but the common folk are starting to look, and, increasingly, walk in other directions.
The Washington Post saw the upcoming election as a “lose/lose” for the U.S.—an increasing disinclination of the UK to follow America’s lead. But in fact it’s a win/win, because, yes, the UK will be increasingly reluctant to sign on for American adventurism. And that’s a good thing.
Afterwords
I like to believe that even Hillary Clinton will feel the pressure to walk the walk if not talk the talk regarding regime change, about which she was once so enthusiastic. Hey, even fools can dream, can’t they?
