Special Relationships
If you have glanced at this mornings On This Day entry, you will see that it is the anniversary, in 1783, of Great Britain’s formal cessation of hostilities with its American colonies. As if by coincidence, I suspect that a lot of you saw pictures like this on last night’s news…
…shortly before you saw your supper for the second time. Notwithstanding the bout of projectile vomiting brought on by the mere sight of Miliband & Clinton, this morning we return to the special relationship between Britannia & Uncle Sam.
Back in 2003, Boy aged 6 at the time was playing with one of his chums. Little chum was & still is a good kid, notwithstanding his parents misguided liberalism. During the afternoon, my little beacon of transatlantic solidarity was overheard saying,
No, America is our friend because they helped us in the War
Of course, that flies in the face of the truth that most of Europe despises America for many many reasons. Any form of historic analysis reveals that half of Continental Europe could only get itself liberated with vast amounts of US aid; the other half got its collective arses kicked in the process but after that process was over, was able to be rebuilt with American taxpayers dollars, under the Marshall Plan.
From the stout bulldogs perspective, just remember that we won the Battle of Britain our own, & despite what Hollywood might think, we also didn’t need a lot of help to from the left hand side of the pond to crack the German Enigma codes. However looking at the whole of World War II, 25% of our ammunition & 50% of our tanks were supplied by the United States.
In addition, almost all our replacement merchant shipping & nearly all of our transport aircraft came with Made in America on the label.
In the normal course of events, the cries of yank-lover are drowned out by the sound of gunfire coming from FM Towers but I make no bones about being a pro-US & this being a pro-US blog. As regular readers will know, I'm no expert in so many things & geo-politics is one of those, so at this point I shall defer to Sir Winston Churchill & his 1943 broadcast from Washington
The experience of a long life & the promptings of my blood have wrought in me the conviction that there is nothing more important for the future of the world than the fraternal association of our two peoples in righteous work both in war & peace.
Of course the Euro-weenies continue to drone on that America is populated by narrow-minded cowboys that have no comprehension of the World stage, pursues a damaging unilateral foreign policy, think of Disneyland as a cultural peak & only want to eat in Taco Bell. It is the view of your humble correspondent however, that European non-intervention causes more problems that it solves; take for example Bosnia. The exception to this is of course, Germany - they have a nasty habit of invading everybody in an attempt to force entire populations to listen to 3-day Wagnerian operas. Best that the boxheads stay at home for the next couple of hundred years.
However, the Continentals dislike of America is deep seated & to a greater extent, has blinded EU leaders to recent World events. Most of Europe is at best spinelessly ambivalent to the War on Terrorism; France & Germany actively collaborating in their opposition (nothing new about the French collaborating with the Germans eh readers?).
But this loathing goes much deeper and steams from envy - Europeans hate America basically because it is so much richer & has higher standards of living. Forget the current economic woes, America’s socio-economic model will ensure that given time, they will pull through because basically American working folks produce more of just about everything in any year than their European counterparts. My concern comes from a slightly different direction & let us once again revert to the wise words of our skipper, Sir Winston, in his address to the House of Commons on 1 March 1955
We must also never allow the growing sense of unity and brotherhood between the United Kingdom & the United States & throughout the English-speaking world to be injured or retarded
This most special relationship is now being managed by that ghastly Clinton woman & the uber-numpty David Boy Miliband.
Doh!
Comments
Hear, hear!
And yes, the Battle Of Britain was won without our help (and even in spite of ol' Joe Kennedy siding with the Bosch).
As to Continental Europe, there is only one thing us Yanks can do in reply, and that is to hate them back tenfold. They are a cesspool we emigrated from, and for who we have had to go back TWICE in one century to sort out their bloody messes. If
it was a decent place to live,
we wouldn't have left in the
first place.
As to special relationships,
I for one give thanks every
day that our language, our
laws, our customs, and our
freedoms are based upon over
a thousand years of British
enlightenment. I cannot think
of another country that has
given the world as much as
Great Britain. The good has
always outweighed the bad.
Posted by: BushRat | February 4, 2009 8:09 AM
Lets hope for 300 more years of the Union of Sensible English Speakers.
Posted by: Yank in Germany | February 4, 2009 8:19 AM
Well said.
Posted by: Bob in San Diego | February 4, 2009 10:43 AM
True, but in the interest of fairness, the Poles had the jump on cracking Enigma before the Brits, and passed that data out just before Germany and Russia took Poland. At least, so says my copy of a very good book, "Seizing The Enigma". I highly recommend that book.
Posted by: Bob in San Diego | February 4, 2009 10:55 AM
Good old Poles always a good excuse for a fight, never more happy when scrapping for their independance!
Oddly enough my ancestors fought the settlers in the colonies for King George as Hessian Mercs but as good sausage siders stayed on albeit further north and went home for both big scraps last time!
Posted by: TimC | February 4, 2009 12:22 PM
The Hessian soldiers didn't have a choice in the matter ... they were only mercenaries in that their king sold their lives for some British gold.
We had some of those Hessians on our side as well ... our entire US manual of arms was originated by a man who needed a translator to properly curse at the recruits while drill instructing.
Posted by: Kristopher | February 4, 2009 5:27 PM
English-speakers of the world should always stick together -- even if it does mean that we refrain from kicking Australians when they deserve it (which is about 60% of the time).
Don't even get me started on the Asians.
Posted by: Kim du Toit | February 4, 2009 6:54 PM
Not only would I like to add you Brits kicked tuckus during the war, the most inspirational stories I tell My Offspring are the stories of the Queen Mother going about amongst her people and how the Royal Family stood stalwart against the Hun, as well as the miracle of Dunkirk. That story, alone, is enough to bring tears. A whole nation, united and facing incredible odds to rescue their military who repaid the favor by winning.
You so totally rock.
Joe Kennedy gave us two things that I despise him for forever: Appeasement and Ted Kennedy.
Euw.
Posted by: Cricket | February 4, 2009 8:12 PM
Kristopher,
If you are talking about Baron von Steuben, he was Prussian, not Hessian.
Bit of a difference there.
Posted by: SSG Jeff (USAR) | February 4, 2009 10:22 PM
And let's not forget that Britain repaid their entire war debt to the US. I think the only country to do so.
Posted by: lenf | February 5, 2009 1:11 AM
When Gen. Pershing arrived in France in 1918, he said "Lafayette we are here."
When Gen. Eisenhower arrived in France in 1944, he said "Twice that's it." There is no question he was speeking to the French.
Mr. Freemarket, you are all right.
Chris
Houston, TX
Posted by: Chris | February 5, 2009 1:53 AM
Great post, God Bless the U.K.
I wish we could get you your guns back and rid you of the Islamist vermin...all in good time. I suppose, that is, if we don't lose ours and succumb to the flood as well...
Posted by: matt | February 5, 2009 3:01 AM
I say to the Euroweenies :- read these comments you spineless gormless fuckwits, the real brits and Yanks are, as allways on the same side!! despite the difference of opinion a few hundred years ago, being real men we got over it.
Posted by: Chris Edwards | February 5, 2009 3:18 AM
Mr. FM,
Where to you think we Americans inherited the guts in the first place?
Britan stood alone against both the Nazi and Imperial Japanese empires for a time. Not exactly a small feat, remembering that the allies together took almost another five years to defeat them. It would have been a hell of a lot harder to mount the D-Day landings from New York.
Posted by: Joseph | February 5, 2009 3:19 AM
As an aside...I have often wondered if George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, etc. spoke with English accents. Being that they were considered cultured gentleman of the era, I suspect they did.
Posted by: Joseph | February 5, 2009 3:21 AM
I suspect they did, too, because they WERE English.
At least up until the point they signed the
Declaration Of Independence.
Posted by: BushRat | February 5, 2009 6:17 AM
Aye, thank the Lord we unwittingly spawned the USA. I shudder to think what the world would look like otherwise. Without the Cousins, there would be no hope.
I look forward to the day - sadly, possibly not now in my lifetime - when Britain is free again. Fortunately, ideas never quite die.
Posted by: Jeff Wood | February 5, 2009 2:23 PM
Mind you, pity it was expedient to enlist the help of the Froggies. never let you forget it, have they?
Posted by: Jeff Wood | February 5, 2009 2:33 PM
Weeeellll (aw cut me some slack here) the French did help in the evacuation at Dunkirk but what I remember as true grit was the Lord Admiral personally patrolling the French shore making sure
no one was left behind.
Posted by: Cricket | February 6, 2009 12:31 AM
If the USA hadn't come to aid the French in WWII, they'd be speaking German today.
If France hadn't come to aid the 13 colonies in the American Revolution, we'd be speaking...English. :)
Two peoples, separated by a common language.
There's no need to argue about who aided whom in WWII. There has been and will never be a closer bond and friendship between two nations than the UK and USA. Helping you was our solemn duty, not an act of charity. Despite popular dissent, the UK stood shoulder to shoulder with us in Iraq and Afghanistan. We can count our faithful and courageous allies on one hand.
The bravery and tenacity of the British people are the stuff legends are made of.
Posted by: POWinCA | February 6, 2009 5:07 AM
The Battle of Britain truly was your "Finest Hour" and no one can take that away from England. As for our tiny contribution to the effort, I have always wondered how many Heinkels, Junkers, or ME-109s got ventilated with .303 ammo that had Remington, Winchester, or Federal head stamps.. I wonder if there are any records about such things.
Posted by: Larry Anderson | February 6, 2009 3:10 PM
Well, English is easier to speak than German. Heh.
The Maquis did do their best to resist and help out the Allies.
And wasn't it Lafeyette who helped out all by his lonesome without a sou from France? His money, etc?
Talk about yer noblesse oblige!
Posted by: Cricket | February 7, 2009 12:10 AM