Bush shuns and insults Britain

I guess it's not enough that Britain backed Bush in his ill-conceived, delusional, and disatrous invasion and occupation of Iraq from the start. Or that Britain has been by far the most reliable ally in Afghanistan. Or that they took their military to the brink of collapse in Iraq as Bush kept up the "turning the corner" masquerade. It also isn't enough that Britain squandered several billion in Iraq with nothing to show for it.

No, Britain didn't destroy their military or go bankrupt backing Bush, so now they are "unworthy".

And, of course, Bush new-found allies in France and Germany won't take this as an object lesson on the cost of following his delusional policies.

The worst part, by far, is the insult to the British military in saying that they have "performed poorly in Basra".

France has taken no part in Iraq or Afghanistan. Germany has restricted itself to safe parts of Afghanistan, and even then will only commit to training the Afghan police. Great allies, eh? However, since they back Bush's new war against Iran, they are apparently Bush's new best friends.

full story from The Daily Telegraph

Britain 'no longer closest Bush ally'

By Toby Harnden in Washington

Last Updated: 12:01am BST 03/10/2007

The White House no longer views Britain as its most loyal ally in Europe since Gordon Brown took office and is instead increasingly turning towards France and Germany, according to Bush administration sources.

"There's concern about Brown," a senior White House foreign policy official told The Daily Telegraph. "But this is compensated by the fact that Paris and Berlin are much less of a headache. The need to hinge everything on London as the guarantor of European security has gone."

With Tony Blair departed, Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, is seen by many as the man George W Bush can best do business with in Europe. Although Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, has not lived up to initial expectations in Washington, she is still seen as far preferable to her predecessor Gerhard Schröder.

The White House official added that Britain would always be "the cornerstone" of US policy towards Europe but there was "a lot of unhappiness" about how British forces had performed in Basra and an acceptance that Mr Brown would pull the remaining 4,500 troops out of Iraq next year.

"Operationally, British forces have performed poorly in Basra," said the official. "Maybe it's best that they leave. Now we will have a clear field in southern Iraq." Another White House official described Mr Brown as "challenging" and far less close to the US than Mr Blair.

There has been a notable reduction in contact between Downing Street and the White House since Mr Blair left and US officials have remarked on how few British ministers have visited Washington in recent months.

...

Privately, White House aides accept that Mr Brown would not support military action against Iran. There is also disquiet about what US officials view as double dealing by special advisers briefing an anti-White House message in London and a more favourable one in Washington. "That sort of manoeuvring is not appreciated," said one diplomatic source.

The wariness about Mr Brown could open doors to the Conservative Party.

Owen Paterson, the shadow Northern Ireland secretary, recently met several key White House officials, including Barry Jackson, who recently took over many of Karl Rove's duties as a policy adviser to Mr Bush.

A British diplomatic source said: "In the White House there's a sense of enormous change from Blair. They used to be on the phone to Blair all the time and that's no longer the case because Brown clearly wants to be the unBlair.

"At the Pentagon, there's a feeling that Britain is letting the side down on Iraq. The new best friend is Sarkozy and that means Brown taking a step back doesn't matter as much. In White House eyes, Sarkozy is taking up the slack from Blair. "When things get tough, however, they're likely to turn to Britain again."