Britain's special relationship 'just a myth'
Daily Telegraph Link
Daily Telegraph Link
A senior American official has spoken of "the myth of the special relationship" between the United States and Britain, arguing that Tony Blair got "nothing, no payback" for supporting President George W Bush in Iraq.
George W Bush and Tony Blair
Bush and Blair at the G8 summit at St Petersburg when their private conversation was overheard
Kendall Myers, a leading State Department adviser, suggested that Mr Blair should have been ditched by Labour but the party had lacked the "courage or audacity" to remove him.
David Cameron, the Conservative leader, was "shrewd, astute" to have distanced himself from America.
In candid comments that will embarrass Mr Bush and Mr Blair, the veteran official said America "ignored" Britain, and he urged Britain to decouple itself from the US.
He asserted that the "special relationship", a term coined by Sir Winston Churchill in 1946, gave Britain little or nothing.
George W Bush and Tony Blair
Bush and Blair at the G8 summit at St Petersburg when their private conversation was overheard
Kendall Myers, a leading State Department adviser, suggested that Mr Blair should have been ditched by Labour but the party had lacked the "courage or audacity" to remove him.
David Cameron, the Conservative leader, was "shrewd, astute" to have distanced himself from America.
In candid comments that will embarrass Mr Bush and Mr Blair, the veteran official said America "ignored" Britain, and he urged Britain to decouple itself from the US.
He asserted that the "special relationship", a term coined by Sir Winston Churchill in 1946, gave Britain little or nothing.