issac the dragon
10-26-2007, 10:19 PM
From The TimesOctober 27, 2007
Let’s admit it. As a country we’re impotent
In a range of big foreign policy questions it is time we British embraced the politics of impotenceMatthew Parris
What difference could Britain make with Iran? What difference can we make in Afghanistan? What difference have we made in Iraq?
Argument about all three has flared across the past decade. Succeeding ages will be astonished at how the debates dominated our daily news. They returned again and again to Britain’s relationship with the United States. There have typically been two sides. The “ayes” have saluted US foreign policy, anxious that we should “stand alongside” America in countering what they and Washington see as threats posed by terrorist movements and other malign foreign powers. These ayes believe British interests and those of the United States are usually close.
The “noes” have argued for an independent British foreign policy that “stands up” to America and actively opposes US policies that they see as wrong-headed.
I’ve been an instinctive supporter more of the noes than the ayes. But I now want to advance an argument that will please neither. The case is, for a post-imperial nation with lingering imperial dreams, the hardest policy of all: to do nothing.
In Afghanistan we’re losing, however just the cause. In Iraq neither we nor even the US will in the end have made as much of a difference (for good, as the hawks would have it, or for ill, as the doves say) as both sides to the debate believe.
And in Iran I suspect the Americans are on the brink of making a huge mistake, but that we may as well sit back and let them. We have no power to stop this confrontation now. In a range of big foreign policy questions it is time we British embraced the politics of impotence. We should save our enthusiasms, our money, our international friendships and our soldiers’ lives, for what is doable. 10/26/2007
This is an editorial opinion from the London Times. I wish we had their freedon. They can walk away. We are stuck with Bush. We will lose out money, and our soldiers lives.
Let’s admit it. As a country we’re impotent
In a range of big foreign policy questions it is time we British embraced the politics of impotenceMatthew Parris
What difference could Britain make with Iran? What difference can we make in Afghanistan? What difference have we made in Iraq?
Argument about all three has flared across the past decade. Succeeding ages will be astonished at how the debates dominated our daily news. They returned again and again to Britain’s relationship with the United States. There have typically been two sides. The “ayes” have saluted US foreign policy, anxious that we should “stand alongside” America in countering what they and Washington see as threats posed by terrorist movements and other malign foreign powers. These ayes believe British interests and those of the United States are usually close.
The “noes” have argued for an independent British foreign policy that “stands up” to America and actively opposes US policies that they see as wrong-headed.
I’ve been an instinctive supporter more of the noes than the ayes. But I now want to advance an argument that will please neither. The case is, for a post-imperial nation with lingering imperial dreams, the hardest policy of all: to do nothing.
In Afghanistan we’re losing, however just the cause. In Iraq neither we nor even the US will in the end have made as much of a difference (for good, as the hawks would have it, or for ill, as the doves say) as both sides to the debate believe.
And in Iran I suspect the Americans are on the brink of making a huge mistake, but that we may as well sit back and let them. We have no power to stop this confrontation now. In a range of big foreign policy questions it is time we British embraced the politics of impotence. We should save our enthusiasms, our money, our international friendships and our soldiers’ lives, for what is doable. 10/26/2007
This is an editorial opinion from the London Times. I wish we had their freedon. They can walk away. We are stuck with Bush. We will lose out money, and our soldiers lives.