End of ‘special relationship’ between US and UK…?

I remember thinking what an extraordinary snub it was when the White House refused Downing Street’s request to hold a formal press conference between President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Gordon Brown after their first formal meeting in March. 

The White House claimed that Obama was simply too busy dealing with matters related to the then percolating financial crisis.

This was exposed as patently contrived, however, when Obama took time out on the day of Brown’s visit to meet with the Boy Scouts. And, only after the media gave voice to seething complaints by Brown’s handlers, the White House finally condescended to a photo op in the Oval Office.

But Obama’s snub was as egregious as Brown’s humiliation was palpable. More to the point, this episode was a rather stark departure from the pomp and ceremony that invariably attended the first formal meeting between US presidents and UK prime ministers.

Now newspapers in the US and UK are reporting that the White House rejected no less than five requests from Downing Street in recent weeks for these “special friends” to hold a one-on-one meeting this week: either at the UN General Assembly in New York or at the G-20 summit in Pittsburg. By contrast, similar meetings were duly scheduled with the leaders of Japan and Russia among others.

At least the excuse this time was more forthright. For the White House let it be known that Obama is still pissed off at Brown for orchestrating the recent release of the Lockerbie bomber against his express wishes.

There’s no denying, however, that Brown’s dwindling prospect for reelection next year  is feeding Obama’s political disaffection. (A cold and boorish disaffection that beleaguered New York Governor David Paterson himself is now experiencing….)

In any event, this then led to the unseemly spectacle of Brown having to corner Obama in the kitchen of the UN just to get a few minutes of face time with him.  

Yet I have no doubt that Brown will not only continue his overtures but also suffer similar indignities with a stiff upper lip. Not least because he understands all too well that nothing confirms one’s status as a key player on the world stage quite like a state dinner at the White House or a bilateral press conference with the president of the United States.

All the same, no matter Brown’s political motivation, or even how anachronistic and unrequited, for the UK, this notion of a special relationship might be, Obama’s treatment of him reeks of impudence, petulance, and conceit. 

After all, no matter Obama’s beef with Brown, the UK remains the US’s most loyal and indispensable ally. And the way Britons have fought and sacrificed alongside Americans in Iraq and Afghanistan all these years is a poignant testament to this fact.

Therefore, it behooves Obama to appreciate that in snubbing Brown he disrespects not only the truly substantive nature of this US-UK relationship but also the traditional ties upon which it is based. 

Not to mention how much this betrays his purported mandate to make civility and pragmatism instead of bravado and self-righteousness the guiding principles of US foreign policy.

So, get over yourself Barack!

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Release of the Lockerbie bomber…