Is the "special relationship" with America over ?

[Papaumau]

And if it is, is this a good thing or a bad thing ?

President Obama seems to think that this special relationship is over and that the "America's poodle" tag that Britain had aquired because of the way that we followed Bush and America into two wars in the middle east, now needs to be removed from such international relations.

See this: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/mar/28/special-relationship-over-poodle

What do you folks think ?

[avalonmpk]

When I was bringing up my children the world had two great leaders : Kennedy & Kruschev the former young enthusiastic and full of flair and courage the latter ambitious  but pragmatic- Kennedy had the courage to stand up over Cuban Missiles and Kruschov the courage to stand down. And the present leaders of these countries no one not even they themselves know where they stand. Us - we are stuck somewhere slightly off center  between them our special relationship should be with Germany Portugal, France Holland  and Italy in that order. America doesnot need us and we certainly do not need them. One example of the bad influence of America: massive unnecessary litigation, not for the litigants, but for the lawyers benefit. Car insurance and local authority taxes would be considerably lower thereby leaving much more funds for the genuine needy.

There seems to be a fault in my web connection all of what I type does not appear on the screen it seems to be dropping characters!! any body else  got this problem?

[John]

Was it ever really there?

Great Britian has paid over and over again for it.

It did  not come with the goodwill or balance that a real relationship should.

[Papaumau]

I think that there HAS been a "special relationship" with America and Britain and this relationship was forged after they came in to help us beat the Nazis late in 1940. Of course this incurred a great debt derived from what was then called the "lease-lend-laws" where we were seriously in debt to the Americans for helping us win the war. This debt has just recently been paid off !

Along with this connection we allowed Britain to become an American aircraft carrier during the cold war and we were the very first ballistic missile line of defence for America in any nuclear war that might have come about.

With this in memory I am sure that the Americans feel that we are special friends and that we both owe each-other many debts of gratitude.

This is fine so long as we don't feel obliged to get into wars that we are not directly connected to and such a "special relationship" is truly a two-way street.

Recently, I don''t think that it has been a fully reciprocal deal and up until now America has had more out of this deal than we have.

[John]

It was paid for help - it was not free.

The US could have refused to take our money (or women).

No doubt there were spoils offered, business opportunities etc.

The understanding and concept of how that worked would not have
been generally understood at the time.

The population were very trusting and no doubt believed whatever
they were told. Not that it was there place to question it.

Films at that time romanced the reality of war, a simplistic view
of situational placement.