2003.11.20 : The Special Relationship
"The British people are the sort of partners you want when serious work needs doing. The men and women of this kingdom are kind and steadfast and generous and brave, and America is fortunate to call this country our closest friend in the world."
- George W. Bush, yesterday's Whitehall address
- George W. Bush, yesterday's Whitehall address
How much more can I add to that? Aside from a tear or two, just an earnest recommendation that you read all of the speech from which it came. It's available from the New York Times, or from the White House site (for the registration reluctant). I found it really incredibly moving and stirring (oh, and darned funny in parts). Not just for the words of this President – and I for one am a big admirer and supporter, though I know many of you are not. And not just for the compelling articulation of the rationale for our struggle against terror – though I for one agree with Blair when he said today that people who are opposed should at least consider their central argument: that only the spread of the liberal values of freedom, equal justice, economic opportunity, secularism, the rights of women, and tolerance to all the peoples of the world can ever make us safe. But mainly for what it says about Britain, and about what Britain means to the U.S.
My deep affection for this place, and its people, started some time ago, grew slowly – and saw its apotheosis in the wake of 9/11. (I expressed my feeling then here.) But Bush nailed it, I think, and those sentiments are not incidental to why I'm here now. Nor to why I was spurred by the state visit – and, on a much more horrific note, by the mass murder at the British Consulate in Istanbul today – to start proudly wearing this.
Oh, yeah: Go, Pommies! (In the Rugby World Cup finals, v. Australia, today.)
