This report, if true, ought to be enough to fit the final nail into the transatlantic coffin:
Information about every Trident missile the US supplies to Britain will be given to Russia as part of an arms control deal signed by President Barack Obama next week.
Defence analysts claim the agreement risks undermining Britain’s policy of refusing to confirm the exact size of its nuclear arsenal.
The fact that the Americans used British nuclear secrets as a bargaining chip also sheds new light on the so-called “special relationship”, which is shown often to be a one-sided affair by US diplomatic communications obtained by the WikiLeaks website…
Washington lobbied London in 2009 for permission to supply Moscow with detailed data about the performance of UK missiles. The UK refused, but the US agreed to hand over the serial numbers of Trident missiles it transfers to Britain.
Bearing only a token force of Trident missiles, the UK has always been rather cagey about providing a complete count. It now appears that President Obama has secretly swept aside his allies interest in strategic ambiguity for the sake of striking a deal with Moscow, who had to know that if the US was ready to throw Britain under the bus, concessions elsewhere were to be had for the taking: It’s one thing to want to make a deal, another thing entirely to be seen as needing to make one.
Benjamin D’Israeli it was who noted that nations have no permanent friends, nor permanent enemies but rather permanent interests. That said, it’s a little hard to understand how humiliating one of our oldest democratic allies in the cause of ingratiating ourselves with what increasingly looks like a mafia-state oligarchy over what amounts to a handful of missiles serves any lasting US interest.
The Soviets tried for 50 years to split the US from Europe. Despite occasional continental ambivalence, the UK/US relationship anchored America in the Atlantic Alliance for the good of all concerned. In two years, the president has done what the politburo could not accomplish in decades.
There’s change you can believe in.
Whose side is he ON?
Even Clinton, wretched as he was, could tell friend from foe.
Obama hates Britain. I knew that. But even I’m surprised at this level of knife-in-the-backishness.
Take the time to learn about Obama’s father’s career in Kenya, and you’ll quickly understand why he sees the British as the enemy.
However, it’s worth noting that truckloads of low-level bureaucrats cooked up this deal long before it reached Obama’s level for approval.
So let me get this straight – His ancestors had problems with the BRITS in Kenya and he will take it out on ther Nation??? And cause us undue harm all because his pink panties are in a f&*king bunch???
My ancestors on my Mom’s side were named O’Rourke – They were the royalty of county Leitrim in Ireland…they were all driven off their lands and suffered for years….theBrits at the time made sure no O’Rourke owned land there…..so I should hate the present day Brits over this???
What a petty, feckless, stupid fool this idiot is and we are as equally foolish for allowing him to take his immature attitude out on our friends the British.
DAMN him….he is an idiot. I salute our British friends.
Time for Barry-From-Chicago to go. We need a new leader – January 2103 can’t come quick enough.
So, apparently, can “The ONE.” He’s turning on all our allies. Whoever was a friend to America is his foe.
I’m confident that when Reagan was negotiating the INF treaty with Gorbachev, if the Russians had asked for this info, Reagan would have told them to go pack sand.
This pretty much absolutely pisses me off.
Subsunk
I’m with you, Subsunk. As a former crypto I’ve got to wonder what those that we’ve always had a special level of trust with besides the UK (the Aussies, Kiwis, and Canadians) going to think? Talk about being worried about being stabbed in the back…
In an odd way, if Canada’s government were slapped into at least thinking about independent shepherding of Canadian interests, it’d be a good thing.
The US-Canada relationship is vital, but it’d be lovely if my country’s government would occasionally try to work on its own.
Subsunk: Yes, absolutely.
Impeach that asshole.
What in the fuck are you people doing?
Most here would think me on the left, I don’t like the way most comment threads here are going these days but seriously, seriously?
Since the dawn of the modern age all of us sons of Brits have had each others back.
Sim, please be more specific as to them: it is BHO and his fellow travelers, not Americans.
Clinton did grave and continuing moral/ethical damage to our country -BHO may be doing existential damage to us and our true allies if he is not stopped.
BHO is a crooked, traitorous SOB.
Well, so now you see what we’ve been on about.
Well that’s the problem right there. As an example I get a little sick of seeing comments devolve into either “The Left” or the gays destroying the military and then the world.
This is bigger than this. IMO we sons and nations of the United Kingdom are the largest force for good the world has ever known. Why drive a wedge between such a force? If you were colonised by the french or spanish then you’d be wishing the english got there first.
I understand, Sim – but it’s all of a piece throughout. The true believing progressive thinks that things are the way they are today because people lack the imagination to change them, not because society might better be ordered in the way that it is. They acknowledge no responsibility to the past, and assume – arrogantly, some of us suppose – that radical restructuring can be performed on the full gamut of human relationships without any consequences.
Thus does our president, in his well-meaning naivete, believe that for the sake of a new START treaty with Russia, our oldest and most reliable ally – and, as you point out, the mother country – ought to be shuffled off to the side. Why should Britain matter? It’s just another country, and not a particularly powerful one at that.
Our progressive president is merely abandoning another tie to the past in the name of remaking America into his vision of perfection.
What could possibly go wrong?
Does the phrase “New Soviet Man” strike a bell, Lex? Or Pol Pots “Year Zero?” Leftists ALWAYS want to wipe the slate clean of the taint of their hated bourgeoisie and begin anew–especially so as to be able to take full credit for all the wondrous improvements they are about to bestow upon a misguided, badly deceived polity.
Well put, Lex. Your ability to articulate in writing surpasses what some of us have whirling around in our minds, and would dearly love to express. Thank you.
Indeed Lex, it just hurts. Honestly it hurts.
I’m an Aussie, proud to be one.
We will never be a superpower as we don’t have the population to get enough tax dollars to reach anything near what the US spends. That said I like to think we do what’s right.
For a couple of hundred years we of Anglo backgound have hung together. Australia lost the the Ashes to the English, that sucked. Having someone try to beat the crap out of that brotherhood is something else.
There are states in the US, I imagine the rest of us in a larger brotherhood. You, Me, the people in Inidiana, the US, AU, CA, NZ…
And oh, by the way, he’s an Arab ass kissing useless SOB. NOTHING that Obama has done to date has pissed me off this bad. The UK and the US have been fast and true friends for centuries, dammit, and in two years this shit for brains has tossed all that to the winds.
Sim, Obama is not us. In two years, we’ll have another president who will spend most of his first year making amends to our cousins, as well he/she should.
For the first time I feel shamed to be an American.
VX, they’ve been doing since the bloody French Revolution. And they don’t hesitate to kill anyone in their way.
“There’s change you can believe in.”
Maybe so, but I don’t have to like it, and I don’t!
All of this could have been predicted–and WAS–prior to the installation of the Obamassiah to his Tzardom simply by reading what he wrote, said, and by observing with whom he associated. And now some are surprised at ANY of this?
I wonder if our Senators were apprised of this gem in their TS briefing before they voted in favor of this pact??
I’ve lived in the US (MO and CA). I like the US (for the new guys I’m an Aussie).
Between this, the return of the bust, giving the Queen an iPod of your own speeches….
Politically I’m more toward his area but stuff like this….
Keep insulting your friends, then know what it is to stand alone.
It just strikes me as inexplicable; what possible gain is there in upsetting our relationship with England that could counterbalance the harm this does?
Regardless if the negotiations started with low-level functionairies, if the story is true (which if founded on those leaked cables the provenance should be determinable) the decision was made to ask the UK, get a ‘no’ answer, and then choose to go ahead and secretly reveal the info anyway – - that was no low-level decision. Cabinet-level authorization would be required, not to mention high-level work at State… and Obama himself pushed the final deal, HARD.
Either it’s not what it seems, or approaches a violation of the Pesidential duty to protect our counry’s interests.
Just gob-smacking, the whole thing. We’re going to end up with no relaible allies at all before this administration is done. I can’t name one international relationship that has been strengthened during his term.
I wonder if the Brits will forgive us if we give them Obama. Suitably handcuffed.
Mike, at first blush I read that last part as “suitably stuffed”. Funny how one’s mind plays tricks on us.
Hmmm, can another country try a foreigner for treason? Just a thought.
There’s always a first time. What say we give it a whirl? After all, the U.S. deposed two dictators in the 20th Century. Didn’t we? It’s not every day you see one country going around actively taking down the government of another. From there, it’s not such a reach to hand over our own despot.
PS Especially when one considers how the Left proclaimed the necessity of prosecuting Dubbya and Dick.
It may not be technically Treason, Mongo, but in my eyes it’s easily the functional equivalent. At a minimum the House should hold investigative hearings before possibly cranking up any impeachment hearings (I know, I know–not in the political cards, etc.,–but still doesn’t quell my sense of moral/patriotic out-rage or dismay over the actual damage to national security/FP and relationships with our allies he has accomplished)
Not to set off any “Birther” arguments, but doesn’t Obama derive dual Birtish citizenship from his father?
What are we doing w/ the Wikilieaks guy? Possibly, the UK could do the same.
I’m with Ray. Time for the House to draw up Articles of Impeachment for treason. It is my opinion that Mr. Boehner has no more imperative mission right now, than that of stopping this treacherous bastard in the White House. This disclosure to the Russians undermines our nuclear triad as well, since we know Obama is not above giving away technology secrets to our foes. He already handed over stealth technology for the B-2 to the Chinese, and now this is on the table. Holy moley!
Out of curiosity, just what did the Brits do to piss off Obama? Was it something about Kenya, his reputed home of birth? So much ado about Egypt and “Democracy! Democracy! We want Democracy!” (think Animal Farm here), but scarcely a peep about another shift in the global balance of power.
We are screwed, blued, and tattooed. Son…of…a…b!tch!
One of Obama’s first acts as President was to unceremoniously return the bust of Winston Churchill. Then the gift giving snub that occurred when Gordon Brown visited the U.S.
Funny how the “cowboy, frat boy Texan” was able to behave with diplomacy and grace toward one of America’s best allies, whereas the “cool, sophisticated” B.O. treats the British with cold disdain. I’m looking forward to the new admistration that will take office in two years.
As my Dad put it, “I don’t normally agree with everything Rush Limbaugh says, but the more I see of Obama, the more I believe he’s right – Obama’s goal is to destroy America.”
I agree with all the comments above. In my 82 years I have never seen such a betrayal at the highest level of one of our country’s greatest friends. The act is certainly seditious, and I think it is traitorous as well. Obama may be our first black President [though that was a political choice on his part, since he is half white] he is also the first President in my memory to betray his country, our most loyal ally and, not incidentally, his office.
What will happen, I wonder.
Marianne
Marianne: Nothing good. The available solution is obvious, next election, don’t vote for him.
Spread the word.
I dare say you would never hear an argument to the contrary from anyone in the United States, Sim. Whatever differences we had with Britain were laid to rest eons ago, and were related to the Crown rather than its subjects. As a sixth generation descendant son of the UK (Faulkner), this move, along with the shamefully despicable returning of Churchill’s bust, is a personal affront I can scarcely tolerate. Blood will out, and mine is out in indignant rage.
Yes, and it was predicted. Unfortunately, we chose the wrong pigs on the Animal Farm to get the sheep into action. Our bad…and now we shall suffer for it. Indeed, the world shall suffer for it.
There’s a fascinating bit of history many have ignored or never heard of – an interview with Norman Dodd as he relates a conversation he had in 1954 with then Ford Foundation President, Alan Gaither. You can google it and read the whole thing for yourselves or go here,
http://www.supremelaw.org/authors/dodd/interview.htm
I have heard a tape of the conversation, the important thing being a comment by Mr. Gaither:
“… Mr. Gaither then went on, and voluntarily stated, “Mr. Dodd, all of us who have a hand in the making of policies here, have had experience either with the OSS during the war, or with European economic administration after the war. We have had experience operating under directives. The directives emanate, and did emanate, from the White House. Now, we still operate under just such directives. Would you like to know what the substance of these directives is?”
I said, “Yes, Mr. Gaither, I would like very much to know.” Whereupon, he made this statement to me, “Mr. Dodd, we are here to operate in response to similar directives, the substance of which is that we shall use our grant-making power so to alter life in the United States, that it can be comfortably merged with the Soviet Union.”
As bizarre as it may seem, we are observing some of the ramifications of these old directives. Read “Foundations, Their Power and Influence” by Rene Wormser.
I am not smoking, drinking nor injecting anything.
I always knew the Ford Foundation was extremely left-wing in its orientation/operational philosophy, SCDave, but even cynical paranoid me never realized they were so explicitly focused..thanks a bunch for the link!
If it were just the Ford Foundation, we might be OK. However, they are far from alone.
Next thing you know, John Walker and Jerry Whitworth will be set free.
Look, I want Maggie Thatcher to come back from the grave, take Barack Hussein Obama out back in the alley and have a little “knuckle summit” with him. She’d whip his sorry posterior 3 falls out of four.
But if Jug Ears is getting his own back from the Brits for what may have been done to his grandfather as the Brits tried to put down the Mau Mau uprising in Kenya in the early 1950′s, he’s violating his oath of office. His obligation is to protect, preserve and defend the interests of the United States of America. It’s not only the 300 million or citizens of the USA who are concerned, it’s also the general framework of our North Atlantic treaty and our Eastern European allies. It’s a gross breach of trust on his part.
I find it instructive that Obama chose to sign this new START treaty in a room closed to the presence of the press and reporters. It reminds me of a nasty little boy at age 7 who goes out in the alley to read “dirty magazines” (a filched copy of Playboy) or back out in the alley at age 11 to smoke a forbidden cigarette. Mom was right–if you couldn’t do it in front of her, you shouldn’t do it. (Well she was almost always right in that regard.)
The fact that Obama had to “skulk around in the dark” to sign this treaty gives me some slight hope that he may actually have a sense of shame. It’s a very slight hope, and once I have a Jack Daniels at 1700 hours I’ll come back to my senses. He has no shame.
Mike, I think Lady Thatcher is still with us, although in frail health.
Baroness Thatcher is still above room temperature. That said, she’d kick BHO’s butt, regardless of the state she’s in.
The RN TRIDENT D-5s are leased from the US, and are pooled with the Atlantic Fleet’s TRIDENTs at King’s Bay, for service and maintenance. The Bear now knows all he needs to know about OUR D-5s as well. That would seem to be pretty close to treason.
I don’t know. Remember the SDI and such. It was the knowing that did the real damage to ambitions best left undiscovered. I prefer to believe the same was so with the ASW networks we used to have that slowly crept into the light of day strangely and mysteriously. When the real IRBM came along they caused great distress and for good reason.
They pleased themselves for decades that they ran games on us and we snickered a bit and ran games on them.
I remember last year when a few GOP Senators wanted to postpone the rectification of this treaty to review the diplomatic transcripts between the ONE and the Russians, for some reason the ONE would not release them and said there is no time, to review it.
I also think the New START treaty is now Voided since it was passed on the false pretext.
Its time to impeach the SOB and throw him in the clinker along with all his cohorts.
Our country and our military still have a special relationship with our British allies.
Sadly, our President does not, and therefore does not speak for me on this issue (among others).
It will take years or decades to reverse the destruction he is bringing to our nation, our economy, and our culture.
I blame the media who lied (directly or by complicit silence) about who this man was and what he believed and who he associated with.
Holy Crap. And this clown thinks this has absolutely no bearing on our defenses also?
It’s more than just BHO, treaties are put together by teams of negotiators and a bunch of staffers on the hill are going to read thru the treaties articles- at least you would hope so.
The rot is everywhere.
One may rue empire the same way one might rue slavery, the domination of one group over another and for the most baseless of reasons like economic power or technological advancement or even skin color.
One might also rue the sunrise, but the sun still rises, there are still poor nations and those with little technology and oh yes there is still racial politics to play. Griping about it doesn’t help, but allows one to feel better. Actions to right it are needed. America and Great Britain have always led the way to righting these wrongs and a host of others.
But at one time the US and Britain were brothers. We’d had a fight, of course, and parted ways and were no longer partners in the family business, but we were still brothers.
When push comes to shove, brothers stick up for brothers. Unless you’re Obama.
The English-speaking peoples, I believe, have done the most good for the most number of people on the planet than any other group you could care to come up with, let alone name.
Our current president went on his apology tour of the Middle East to remind them that we were imperfect and we wanted to play no part in that area. Now the region has broken out into uprising, and we’re in no position to play a part. Our current president has handed his domestic agenda over to Congress and allowed them to push it forward, and his foreign agenda can best be described as official vacations and shopping trips in public and details in private. He is the President, the Executive. Foreign Agenda is sort of what he’s supposed to do as the head of the nation.
Apparently it’s not interesting enough for him to do one of his patented great speeches about.
Read the transcript of Ronald Reagan’s speech at the Brandenburg Gate. Read his speech in support of Barry Goldwater, known as the “Time to Choose” speech. Go to the American Rhetoric website (http://www.americanrhetoric.com) and look at the Top 100 speeches. You won’t see a COTUS (Community Organizer of the United States) speech on the list, but you will see them from Kennedy, Roosevelt, and Cuomo.
Ponder why that is. Some people have principles, and both defend and act upon them. Many speak of these actions and defend these acts by way of explanation.
Some have no principles, and hence no reason to speak to defend their beliefs or justify their actions. They act alone, not wanting or caring for our support or understanding.
Such men eventually wind up standing alone.
In two years we can rectify this mistake and the rest of the world will understand
that the COTUS did not speak for us. The Brits, with their steadfastness, will ride
out the current administration and our relationship will begin again as old friends.
One wonders if the Middle East, or Russia, will be so tolerant.
– Max
Max,
Beautifully written.
You know what I’m thinking better than I do and can certainly articulate it better than I ever could.
Regards,
Mick
Well said Max.
I am not certain that we can recover from all the damage, domestic & foreign, that BHO and the Democrats (Pelosi, Reid, Frank, Dodd, et al.) have done and are still trying to do.
We are still paying for the distrust of government that was one of Nixons legacies. We are still suffering from the mores bequeathed to us by the odious William Jefferson Clinton.
Four years is a long time to have an enemy at the helm of our country, with at least two years having a compliant congress helping him.
The ridiculous thing is that the French also maintain a small force de frappe of nukes. We couldn’t dime them out to the Russians because they never trusted us.
Because, of course, the President did this singlehandedly without any input from the American military and of course no Republicans voted for ratification. The disingenuousness is astounding. What a whiny bunch of ill informed children you lot are. And Reagan? He would have just sold the missiles to Iran.
That’s an extraordinarily persuasive use of logic, there CCFK: Were you perhaps trained by Jesuits?
Look, the buck stops somewhere. Back in Harry Truman’s time it stopped with the president, but perhaps things have changed. Your view seems to be because Obama did it, secret codicils – you did read the article, right? – that sell our ally’s confidential information against their wishes are OK.
Have as much of that “fall in line behind the Dear Leader” stuff as you’d like, and you may take your superciliousness with it.
superciliousness: noun The quality of being arrogant: arrogance , haughtiness , hauteur , insolence , loftiness , lordliness , overbearingness.
Geez Lex, you need to type slower so I can keep up. Heh!
CCFK/
And before you seize upon denials by the British, the WH, State Dept, etc., claiming everything is hunky dory, no big, deal yadda yadda yadda, as if in refutation of the charges, do not deceive yourself. These statements are but the standard reflexive pro forma damage control cya PR, nothing more. The cables tell the tale. But if those are not enough,, just ask yourself: Why WOULD Obama refuse to let the appropriate Senate intelligence and armed services committees see the working papers of the treaty negotiators prior to the rushed ratification vote? And why did he hold the signing ceremony in private, conveniently far away from any reporter’s possible inconvenient questions? One would think that if the treaty was the greatest thing since sliced bread he would have had a super public ceremony to milk the max PR, no? To even ask the question is to answer it..
“Sold?” No, I think not. Delivered balistically, now that’s worth considering.
First BJ Clinton and Bernie Schwarz, with the Chinese now this.
It bears repeating, “Tailgunner Joe was right.”
Shhhh–you won’t invited to all the “right” cock-tail parties if people hear you saying things like that… and I SURE DON’T want you to lose any sleep over the fact..
Oh dear, looks like a situation so serious Brits will have to gone from raised eyebrow to go have a cup of tea. Selling out on this level is never good. But it goes both ways. The left in UK is just as bad (Cambridge 4 , Gordon Brown selling out on lockerbie bomber)and the right in the US/UK is not squeaky clean either.
The relationship will endure, if only on the basis that we speak the same language and less is lost in translation. In NZ I do business with Canucks Yanks and Skips – all no problem. Anyone outside of those countries I heavily use lawyers to protect trade.
When the chips are really down, there are few peoples you can really rely on. French? Pakistanis? Indians? Chinese? Russians? Saudis? and by rely on, I mean watch your back.
Requires a critical analysis skillset, VX. Methinks, ’tis lacking there somewhat.
When One works in darkness, One may remain, or pretend to be, oblivious to One’s flaws within that which is being worked upon. With a number of One’s works having already been brought into the light of day with calamitous results, One now chooses with renewed fervor, through subterfuge and beguilement, to render One’s works away from that which discloses One’s flaws. One might find a shortcoming in this course, however, in that One’s methodology is known to many, and the many have chosen to persevere in bringing One’s works from darkness into light. As One and the many surely know, darkness cannot withstand the light, and ’tis difficult for One to kick against the pricks.
Reminds me of something I read in one of Jerry Pournelle’s novels, to the point that individuals are occasionably honorable and keep their word, but governments? Mostly never.
Governments do not have friends, they have temporary alliances of convenience.
But that is not the way we are supposed to treat our longest standing allies, that is the sort of response you expect of a politician who would casually substitute, “Politicians do not have friends, they have temporary alliances of convenience”.
You have to ask, just what is he gaining thru this action? BHO is not seeing a monetary gain out of this action, he’s seeing an ideological gain for his friends, and his friends are clearly not the UK or our own interests.
Chris Matthews’ documentary on Bill Clinton is entitled: ‘President of the World.’
*gag*
Me thinks the Missiah, has the same aspirations.