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Obama, Britain and the Rookie Tag
By The Anglo American | September 28, 2008
The British Prime Minister Gordon Brown with Barak Obama
The US election comes to Europe as the world’s favorite US Presidential 
candidate arrives here as part of his foreign tour. Much is made in Britain of the bond between this country and the United States. A bond, that Sir Winston Churchill called the “special” relationship. But how special is it? Does the briefness of Obama’s intended visit to London indicate a cooling towards Britain? A recent survey in a British conservative broadsheet indicated that it might be just that - a relationship, but no longer special. The days when it was special being, rather like old lovers, something cherished, but a distant memory.
A popular view in Britain, as elsewhere, is that such a romantic chill is the result of the Iraq war. A more accurate view would reflect the horsepower that the Iraq war has sucked out of this administration. While running on empty there has been little effort to consolidate existing bonds with America’s allies.
But Mr. Obama indicates that things will be different. Withdrawal of troops from Iraq forms the backbone of his bid to become President. But his emphasis on Afghanistan is new event and, in Britain, it leaves some question marks.
A top Obama aid, Susan Rice {no relation to Condoleezza Rice}, has indicated that that there will be no easy ride for Europe if there is an Obama Presidency. Rice, who may become the next National Security Advisor, expects a bigger contribution from Europe. If the future is an expansion of military operations in Afghanistan then Europe must play its part.
Such remarks do not chime well in Britain. Much of the work in Afghanistan has fallen on NATO in recent years. By far the biggest chunk of NATO’s Afghan operations, are performed by British troops. Short of military draft there is little more this small island can do. And here lies the difficulty facing the next person forming the next US administration.
The former British Prime Minister, Tony Blair claimed that Britain’s participation in America’s “war on terror” would allow Britain to bring influence to bear on the US administration. It has now emerged that Blair exercised no influence over the Bush administration whatsoever, other than to sing in harmony. It has been a humiliating exercise for Britain. It would be political suicide for any British leader to repeat such unquestioning compliance to the will of the United States - however deserving the arguments may be to do so.
Certainly, Barak Obama and Susan Rice will not find such compliance from David Cameron. Cameron is the leader of the British Conservative Party and is very likely to be Britain’s Prime Minister within the next two years.
Unlike Obama, David Cameron has not waited until a few months before an election to go fact finding in Afghanistan or Iraq. Obama has used his foreign policy crash course as an electoral opportunity. Cameron, on the other hand, has learned from being ‘on the ground’ over a long period of time - much of it unreported.
“I don’t think the answer is us sending more troops,” he says. “We’re in danger of winning the war militarily but losing the country politically. {David Cameron, The Times, London, July 12, 2008}
What Cameron is suggesting is to have faith in our political ability to find political solutions rather than military ones.
A key test for Obama will be a political one. As President, will he be able to instigate a new workable allied command structure in Afghanistan? The ISAF {NATO lead forces} and OEF {Operation Enduring Freedom} command system simply does not work. As David Cameron puts it:
“If ISAF is visiting a house in one part of a village trying to win hearts and minds and a Hellfire missile is coming down the chimney in another part under OEF, then that’s not going to work,” {The Times, London, July 12, 2008}
But these are early days, however. For anyone who saw Barak Obama in the Illinois legislature, will know - this is not a man you should underestimate. Obama will not be a rookie for long - even if his aids remain so.
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December 10th, 2008 at 9:36 pm
Nice article.
Thanks for sharing.