THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume XI, Issue # 183, September 2, 2009
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
RELEASE OF THE LOCKERBIE BOMBER &
DEATH OF THE ANGLO-AMERICAN ALLIANCE
By Dr. Michael Rubin
THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT'S DEAL INVOLVING RELEASE OF THE LOCKERBIE BOMBER FROM PRISION & HIS RETURN TO
LIBYA: A
SHATTERING OF BRITAIN'S "SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP" WITH THE U.S.A. -- BRITISH PRIME MINISTER GORDON BROWN'S
CLUMSY & TRANSPARENT ATTEMPT TO SUBSTITUTE AN OIL CONTRACT FOR JUSTICE BRINGS AN END TO THE
ANGLO-AMERICAN ALLIANCE
FULL STORY:
On August 20, Scottish authorities freed Libyan intelligence officer Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, the only man convicted in
the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie.
Even though he was sentenced to life in prison, he served just over 11 days for each of the 270 men, women, and
children killed on the ill-fated airliner, or in the village below.
Two weeks later, the political storm is worsening.
Documents show that what the British government said was a compassionate release for a cancer-stricken man had
more to do with British commercial interests.
The diplomatic fallout will be even greater.
Not only did Libyan celebrations destroy the goodwill which Prime Minister Gordon Brown hoped would jump-start
Anglo-Libyan relations, but his clumsy and transparent attempt to substitute an oil contract for justice has shredded
the seven-decade U.S.A.-U.K. Special Relationship beyond repair.
The Special Relationship developed in the face of tyranny -- first Nazi, then Soviet -- which led Americans and Brits
alike to treasure liberty and freedom and no longer take constitutional democracy for granted.
U.S. and Britain's interests are never identical, but petty politics took a backseat to principle and broader strategic
interests.
Debate in Washington, D.C., about how to respond to Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait ended when British Prime
Minister Margaret Thatcher telephoned U.S. President George H.W. Bush to tell him that it was no time "to go
wobbly."
Sacrificing allies for oil did not cross either leader's mind. In the wake of 9/11, President George W. Bush declared to a
Joint Session of Congress, "America has no truer friend than Great Britain."
Alas, today it is clear that Bush was wrong.
The Special Relationship was a compact not between countries, but between generations. As the "Greatest Generation,"
which liberated Europe retired and began to die, appreciation for Anglo-American solidarity wore away.
The trust upon which the relationship was grounded eroded as British officials -- former Labor Minister Clare Short, for
example -- exposed sensitive espionage operations for political gain.
Partnerships take investment. Because public pacifism undercuts British support for its own military, Washington can
no longer count on London to pull its own weight.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's campaign video, replete with captured British soldiers waving the Iranian
flag, resonates. Whatever spin British politicians put on their military's "softly-softly" approach in southern Iraq, it was
a failure.
Accommodating extremists for shortterm gain backfires. It is not the stuff upon which serious alliances are built. As
fighting toughens, the Pentagon worries about Britain's commitment in Afghanistan.
Washington is not blameless. President Barack Obama's gifts to British officials -- DVD collections and iPods loaded
with his speeches -- lacked tact. His return of a bust of Winston Churchill, loaned to the White House after 9/11, was
an unnecessary slap.
The Anglo-American alliance was always made of tough enough stuff to withstand errors of etiquette. Not even the
most committed Anglophile, however, can save the alliance when British politicians are willing to subordinate principle
to the highest bidder.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
International Politics & World Disorder:
War, Peace, & Geopolitics in the Real World:
Foreign Affairs & U.S. National Security
Page Two
Page One
Britain -- The United Kingdom of Great Britain & Northern Ireland:
Mother Country & Close Ally of the United States of America
The Anglosphere -- The English-Speaking World:
The U.S.A., Britain, Canada, Australia, & New Zealand
Dr. Michael Rubin, a Ph.D. in History (Yale University, 1999) and a specialist in Middle Eastern politics, Islamic culture and Islamist
ideology, is a senior editor of the Middle East Quarterly, a senior lecturer at the Naval Postgraduate School, and a resident
scholar at the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research. Dr Rubin is author of Into the Shadows: Radical
Vigilantes in Khatami's Iran (Washington Institute for Near East Policy, 2001) and is co-author, with Dr. Patrick Clawson,
of Eternal Iran: Continuity and Chaos (Palgrave Macmillan, 2005). Dr. Rubin served as political advisor to the Coalition
Provisional Authority in Baghdad (2003-2004); staff advisor on Iran and Iraq in the Office of the U.S. Secretary of Defense
(2002-2004); visiting lecturer in the Departments of History and International Relations at Hebrew University of Jerusalem
(2001-2002); visiting lecturer at the Universities of Sulaymani, Salahuddin, and Duhok in Iraqi Kurdistan (2000-2001); Soref
Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (1999-2000); and visiting lecturer in the Department of History at Yale
University (1999-2000). He has been a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, the Leonard Davis Institute at Hebrew
University, and the Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs.
The foregoing article by Dr. Rubin was originally published in the New York Daily News, September 2, 2009, and
can be found on the Internet website maintained by the Middle East Forum, a foreign policy think tank which seeks to
define and promote American interests in the Middle East, defining U.S. interests to include fighting radical Islam,
working for Palestinian Arab acceptance of the State of Israel, improving the management of U.S. efforts to promote
constitutional democracy in the Middle East, reducing America's energy dependence on the Middle East, more robustly
asserting U.S. interests vis-à-vis Saudi Arabia, and countering the Iranian threat.
(Article URL: http://www.meforum.org/article/2456/ british-government-lockerbie-bomber)
Republished with Permission of the Middle East Forum
Reprinted from the Middle East Forum News
mefnews@meforum.org (MEF NEWS)
September 2, 2009
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Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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