Yeah, Maybe He Shouldn't Have Returned That Bust Of Churchill After All...

Governments have long, long memories when it comes to those who done them wrong.  And sometimes an act of nonviolent national humiliation can burn longer and hotter than a military defeat.

So it must have given the Brits great pleasure to kick a bowing and scraping Barack Obama in his teeth:

Britain has rebuffed US pleas to use military bases in the UK to support the build-up of forces in the Gulf, citing secret legal advice which states that any pre-emptive strike on Iran could be in breach of international law.

The US approaches are part of contingency planning over the nuclear standoff with Tehran, but British ministers have so far reacted coolly. They have pointed US officials to legal advice drafted by the attorney general's office which has been circulated to Downing Street, the Foreign Office and the Ministry of Defence.

This makes clear that Iran, which has consistently denied it has plans to develop a nuclear weapon, does not currently represent "a clear and present threat". Providing assistance to forces that could be involved in a pre-emptive strike would be a clear breach of international law, it states.


Apparently, British law now states we can only annihilate Iran after they finish their long-planned Holocaust, Part Deux.  Gee, I am sure this will reassure Israel (not that they need any more empty Western promises, as they've recently proved). No surprise coming from a European nation, of course, but...who wants to bet that if George W. Bush made the request, it would have been granted?

Or perhaps the Brits would have OK'd the request coming from any American president who didn't seem to find pleasure in insulting their heritage and belittling our long-standing alliance.

Just a short list of recent events that the British are pissed about:

-Siding with Argentina over the Falkland Islands
-Calling France America’s strongest ally
-Lecturing Britain on a federal Europe and undercutting British sovereignty
-Placing a “boot on the throat” of BP (British Petroleum)
-DVDs for the Prime Minister ("...this insult...remains a powerful example of breathtaking diplomatic ineptitude that would have shamed the protocol office of an impoverished Third World country".)


And this excludes the aforementioned bust, which they are still fuming about...

Forget sahred military facilities - four more years of the Obama/Hillary brand of "smart diplomacy", and Air Force One won't be able to find a friendly nation to touch down in...