Barack Obama Doesn’t Represent How The American People Feel About Britain

One of the most ironic things about liberals is that they constantly fret about our image in the world. “Why that Cowboy George Bush is making people hate us!” If you heard something like that once over the last 8 years, you probably heard it a hundred times.

So, what happens when a liberal like Barack Obama gets into office? He falls all over himself to be nice to our enemies. He bows to everyone he can find. He takes shots at America overseas. He brings Felipe Calderon to the United States to smack America around from the White House and Congress. What does this accomplish? A tiny percentage of people say they like America more, but the bad actors in the world start behaving even worse. Look at Russia, Iran, Pakistan, North Korea — things have gone from the frying pan into the fire.

Now if that’s all that happened, it would be bad enough. However, liberals all-too-often seem to have this passive aggressive dislike of nations that are FRIENDLY to America. So Poland gets sold out. Israel is treated like the bad guy and perhaps worst of all, Obama has gone out of his way to send a signal that America cares nothing for Britain. This is almost unfathomably stupid — particularly given the events of the last few years.

Without question, Britain has been the single best ally the United States has had since 9/11. Not only have they talked a good game, they’ve sent troops — and troops that were ready, willing, and capable of fighting as opposed to the “troops” that much of the world volunteered. Moreover, as I noted many times when George Bush was in office, the British people already have serious doubts about the value of their “special relationship” with the United States. That’s probably natural given that British troops had been fighting and dying in Iraq and Afghanistan for what many Brits no doubt regarded as an “American war.”

Given that backdrop, how has Obama treated Britain? Here’s Daniel Hannan, a “conservative” (for Brits, I suppose) MEP who actually supported Obama in 2010 explaining how shabbily Obama has treated Britain,

(Obama’s) fondness for the EU is matched by his disdain for the United Kingdom. It’s not the diplomatic snubs that bother me: the dissing of Gordon Brown, the insulting gifts, the sending back of Winston Churchill’s bust. It’s not even the faux-anger towards the company he insists on calling “British” Petroleum. (No such firm has existed since the merger of BP and Amoco nine years ago. Thirty-nine per cent of BP shares are American-owned, and 40 per cent British-owned. The stricken rig in the Gulf is owned by Transocean, and the drilling was carried out by Halliburton, yet Obama isn’t demanding compensation from either of these American corporations.)

All these things are minor irritants compared to the way the Obama administration is backing Peronist Argentina’s claim to the Falkland Islands — or, as Obama’s people call them, “the Malvinas”. British troops were the only sizeable contingent to support the US in Iraq and Afghanistan. We have fought alongside America in most of the conflicts of the past hundred years. Yet, when the chips are down, Obama lines up with Hugo Chávez and Daniel Ortega against us.

Not that we should feel singled out. The Obama administration has scorned America’s other established friends. It has betrayed Poland and the Czech Republic, whose Atlanticist governments had agreed to accept the American missile defence system at immense political cost, only to find the project cancelled. It has alienated Israel and India. It has even managed to fall out with Canada over its “Buy American” rules and its decision to drill in disputed Arctic waters. Never has there been a worse time to be a US ally.

He’s not the only Brit I’ve seen saying those things and you know what? He’s RIGHT. What Obama needs to figure out is that when you bend over backwards to cater to your enemies and treat your friends like trash, your enemies are going to look for opportunities to kick you in the behind and your friends are going to say, : “Why should we bother to help?”

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