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July 31, 2007

Will Gordon Brown Maintain the US "Special Relationship"?

This article by Adrian Morgan (Giraldus Cambrensis of Western Resistance) appeared earlier today in Family Security Matters and is reproduced with their permission.

On Sunday July 30 Gordon Brown, Britain's unelected prime minister, flew to the United States, to have dinner and a sleep-over at Camp David with George W. Bush. His Monday schedule included meetings with Congressional representatives and meeting Ban-Ki Moon at the UN building in New York. The visit has been marked by questions about whether or not Brown will maintain the "Special Relationship" which has been maintained between Britain and the United States since 1943, when Winston Churchill became the first British leader to be entertained at Camp David.

Before arriving at Camp David, Gordon Brown made a point of echoing Churchill's words, even though Churchill was a political animal of a caliber far removed from the Scottish bureaucrat who began his career parroting socialist dogma. Brown spoke of "the joint inheritance of the English-speaking world", words lifted from a famous speech, the "Sinews of Peace" address, made by Winston Churchill at Westminster College, Fulton, Missouri on March 5, 1946.

Brown's appropriation of Winston Churchill's words was a presumptive device to win over the president, who is an admirer of Britain's greatest modern leader. Churchill. unlike Gordon Brown, made sure his military forces were financially and morally supported in times of peace as in times of war. Brown, during a decade's tenure as Chancellor, has cut back defense spending to its lowest point since 1930, and has antagonized and frustrated the military to the point that most army officers have considered resigning from their posts.

In November last year, Brown proudly boasted that he had brought down the number of troops stationed in Iraq, and intended to decrease their numbers still further. While President Bush has increased troop capacity in Iraq, Brown has made no mention of following suit.

Questions have been circulating about Brown's real intentions towards America since July 14 this year. It was on this date in Washington that Brown's newly-appointed International Development Secretary, Douglas Alexander, hinted that George W. Bush's strategy against terrorism was not shared by the Brown government. Though he praised the UK/US special relationship, Alexander said to the Council on Foreign Relations: "We must form new alliances, based on common values, ones not just to protect us from the world but ones which reach out to the world. In the 20th century a country's might was too often measured in what they could destroy. In the 21st century, strength should be measured by what we can build together." Alexander suggested that diplomacy and development aid were important tools against terrorism, even though there is no evidence that Islamic terrorists have ever seriously wished for "diplomacy".

The next potential crack in the special relationship was made by another of Brown's new cabinet ministers, Lord Malloch Brown (pictured), the Foreign Office minister. This individual formerly served as deputy secretary general to the United Nations. Mark Malloch Brown now presides over the Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO), a body which has been making overtures to Islamists in the Muslim Brotherhood since 2003. The FCO works closely with MI6, Britain's offshore intelligence wing.

According to the autobiography of Pakistan's President Musharraf, British terrorist Omar Sheikh, convicted of the kidnapping and murder of Daniel Pearl, was employed by MI6 as an agent, before turning "renegade". Similarly, in November last year, the South Asia Analysis Group echoed suggestions made by former US Justice Department prosecutor John Loftus that UK terror suspect Haroon Rashid Aswat was also a renegade MI6 agent. Intriguingly, Aswat was reported in some press accounts to have been arrested in Sargodha, Pakistan, while others maintained he was arrested in Zambia, suggesting some sort of official cover-up. Not surprisingly, it was recently revealed that in 1998 and 1999, MI6 refused to assist the CIA in its efforts to apprehend Osama bin Laden unless assurances were given that the terror leader would be treated humanely.

On July 14, Mark Malloch Brown's first press interview since being made Foreign Office minister was published. He said: "It is very unlikely that the Brown-Bush relationship is going to go through the baptism of fire and therefore be joined together at the hip like the Blair-Bush relationship was. That was a relationship born of being war leaders together. There was an emotional intensity of being war leaders with much of the world against them. That is enough to put you on your knees and get you praying together."

Malloch Brown added: "What I really hate is the effort to paint me as anti-American, but I am happy to be described as anti-neo-con. If they see me as a villain, I will wear that as a badge of honor." Like Douglas Alexander, Malloch Brown is not a supporter of the "war on terror" and objects to claims that Islamist terror is being made by Muslims, saying "Just labelling it in a way that bundles people together isn't always the best way." He claimed that in the UN "we used to meet Taliban leaders and all kinds of Palestinian factions. It is not because by doing so you are giving them political support but you have to find ways of dealing with issues. There has to be some flexibility against some very firm principles."

With Malloch Brown and Douglas Alexander setting off alarm bells in Washington, another of Gordon Brown's new political appointees joined the fray. Simon McDonald is Gordon Brown's chief foreign policy adviser, and the Sunday Times reports that before Brown's US visit, McDonald was having meetings with US policy-makers. One of those who met him said that it seemed McDonald was testing the potential US reactions should Britain unilaterally decide to pull out of Iraq. Henry Kissinger has warned that Britain should not distance itself from the US, saying: "Ostentatious dissociation from the US just sets up a quarrel."

In Washington last week Britain's ambassador to the US, Sir David Manning, was on the telephone to Condoleezza Rice and Stephen Hadley to reassure them that Gordon Brown valued the "special relationship". Despite this, a former British diplomat was quoted as saying: "Under Brown, there won't be any of the instinctual, shoulder-to-shoulder stuff there was with Blair." Brown has said that the press have misinterpreted the speech of Douglas Alexander, and is reassuring his friends that political analysts have not read the situation properly.

Accompanying Gordon Brown on his brief trip to the US was his new Foreign Secretary, 42-year old David Miliband, who had earlier been forced to draw a line under Lord Malloch Brown's comments. Miliband had said that the Foreign Office minister had "a very specific job to do", dealing with the UN, Asia and Africa, rather than pontificating about Britain's relationship with George W. Bush. Miliband affirmed on July 15 that Britain's support for the US remains "resolute".

There remain many questions about Gordon Brown's future intentions. His choice of cabinet ministers is somewhat questionable. His new Security Minister, Admiral Sir Alan West, was recently the First Sea Lord. When Iran illegally kidnapped 15 British sailors in March this year, West commended the Defense Ministry's decision not to fire by saying "we don't want wars starting."

Brown's Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith, had only been in office for a matter of days when she announced that she had smoked cannabis while a student at Oxford. The announcement came a day after she revealed that she was discussing raising the penalties for marijuana possession. Brown's response was one of apparent indifference. His official spokesman said the issue was a "personal matter for ministers... there is no Number 10 edict on this one way or another." After Smith's confession, six more cabinet ministers came out of their closets to confirm that they too had smoked cannabis in their youth.

There may be former pot-headed pixies in the cabinet, but one should never forget that a large number of the rank and file MPs in Gordon Brown's Labour Party are barely reformed former Trotskyites. The most obvious of these is London's mayor, Ken Livingstone. The tofu-eating terror appeasers were riled when Gordon Brown announced that the US is leading the battle against terrorism, and that the world should be grateful to America for this. Brown said that "we cannot solve any of the world's major problems without the active engagement of the US." Leftists traditionally loathe the United States, and Brown's comments sent Labour party leftists into rabid mode.

Peter Kilfoyle, MP for Liverpool Walton, was a junior defense minister when Labour came to power in May 1997. He said: "Is it in Britain's national interest to be closely associated with what is possibly the most extreme administration the US has ever seen? No it is not. Mr Brown must not let himself be persuaded that is the case."

Even Ann Cryer, a moderate left-winger, was scathing. The Labour MP for Keighley said: "I get very impatient with George Bush and I don't believe he is very bright. We do have very strong cultural links with America and Gordon is right to emphasize those, but he should not suggest Bush is the man to solve the world's problems. He should realise that much of American public opinion is out of tune with what its President is doing, and concentrate on that."

Even the opposition party in Britain appears to be courting a potential Democrat victory in the next US elections. William Hague is the Tory party's shadow Foreign Secretary, and he has consistently denounced Guantanamo and US policies of "rendition". The leader of the Tory Party, David Cameron, made the tactless statement on the 5th anniversary of 9/11 that if he came to power, his party would not be "America's unconditional associate in every endeavor," claiming the Bush administration was employing "an unrealistic and simplistic" view of the world.

Currently, Cameron's popularity ratings have fallen to an all-time low against Labour. Brown was never expected to be popular, but in the wake of the recent car-bomb plots, his funereal presentation seemed more appropriate than Tony Blair's style of bleating like Bambi in front of cameras. Brown's unexpected popularity, which has seen his party rise to 40% approval in opinion polls, is called the "Brown bounce". Cameron made the mistake of flying off to Rwanda while his constituents in Witney, Oxfordshire, were dealing with flooded homes.

The "Brown bounce" may soon disappear, as the honeymoon period gives way to a realization that the unelected premier may not be as forthright as he would have people believe. The Labour party was elected on a manifesto promise that it would hold a referendum if any attempts were made by the European Union to bring in a "constitution". The EU is now trying to bring in a EU Treaty which in all but 10% of its clauses is the same European Constitution which was narrowly rejected in 2005. Despite this, Brown's ministers expect to sign this treaty when parliament returns from its summer recess. This will give only 10 days for parliament to discuss the 277-page document's contents. Brown will give the UK public no opportunity to review the treaty's contents.

This summer has been the wettest since British records began, with widespread flooding in various locations. In June, Hull city was afflicted by floods, causing 30,000 people to be made homeless. Emergency aid was promised. Five weeks later, and funds have not been given out, due to bureaucratic confusion.

The reactions to the floodings were initially stoical, and there was an echo of the "Blitz spirit", when communities helped each other. Brown's new housing minister Yvette Cooper, despite the widespread chaos, has insisted that the government's new home-building policy will involve houses being built upon existing flood plains. If the Labour party had not insisted upon allowing uncontrolled mass immigration over the past decade, there would be little need to build new homes.

As I write, I have had no running water in my home for more than a week. I live in a village just outside Gloucester, near the epicenter of the worst flood crisis to have happened recently. Currently there are 340,000 homes in the county of Gloucestershire which have no access to running water. There are plans to pump untreated water through the mains, but clean water, suitable for drinking, is not expected to flow from our faucets for another nine days. When the Mythe waterworks at Tewkesbury (pictured) became flooded with water from the Rivers Severn and Avon, pumping and filtration ceased. An electricity substation at Gloucester came within two inches of being flooded. We still live in fear of the next deluge.

The stoicism which caught the spirit of the moment is giving way to anger. 900 water "bowsers" were installed at locations affected by the shortage, but these are inadequate for the demand. In Cheltenham, one of the affected Gloucestershire towns, youths have added urine and bleach to some of these containers. Elderly and disabled people are expected to gather their own water from these bowsers, and only a select few are assisted by social workers. Two of my neighbors are elderly and disabled, and cannot carry water. One cannot even hold a two liter bottle of water without losing her balance. A total of 25,000 people over the age of 80 are currently without running water.

Gordon Brown may state that he supports America, and he would be a fool to suggest otherwise, but I suspect he would be happier breaking bread with Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton than with George W. Bush. At home his popularity may wane but so far the luminaries of the opposition Tory party, heirs to Margaret Thatcher and Winston Churchill, are floundering in a confusion of policy and outlook. We who live in Britain may shrug with resignation at future "Acts of God", but will we be prepared for future Acts of Gordon Brown?

Adrian Morgan

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Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at July 31, 2007 5:40 AM

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Posted by: Spipou at August 1, 2007 12:23 AM

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