The Special Relationship Continues

I caught the NPR show "Fresh Air" on the radio on Tuesday -- no timeshifting ... it was actually on the air, which is a rarity for me.

They had on a British "soldier of fortune" who operates in Iraq called John Geddes. While listening to him talk, it really struck me how America and the UK have got on during the last century. While he had some interesting opinions about how the Americans operate (for instance, driving through the country in their shiny SUVs and Humvees bristling with weapons, while the British take mechanically sound vehicles and distress them to blend in) the fact is that for better or for worse (okay, just for worse) it's the Brits and us there.

The special relationship is more than a shared language. As noted here before, they have a different word for everything there, and even different grammar. Canada may be more similar to us culturally, but we're far less tied at the hip on the international scene in my opinion. And Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and other English-speaking countries are just plain exotic.

When the UK links up with America in global politics, it's more than a debt from World War II -- other European countries have certainly considered accounts to be even for a long time now.

My opinions about the war in Iraq are pretty much in line with most people in both the USA and Great Britain -- it's bullocks and we shouldn't carry on with just a stupid adventure. But listening this chap speak brought it home: For decades now, it's always been the American boys (and now girls) and lads (and lasses) from the UK shoulder to shoulder, no matter what.

To alter the great Elvis Costello slightly, it's "the boys from the Mersey and Thames and Tyne" beside the kids from the Passaic and the Hudson and the Mississippi.