A Mouse, Alone No More

Living next to you [the USA] is in some ways like sleeping with an elephant. No matter how friendly or temperate the beast, one is affected by every twitch and grunt.
- Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, March 25, 1969, Addressing the Press Club in Washington, D.C.

LONDON (AP) — Britain's close alliance with the United States has put it at particular risk of terrorist attack, two leading think tanks said Monday, but a government minister said the nation would not have been safer by staying out of wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The continuing debate about the wisdom of Britain's military commitments has intensified after the bombings of three London underground trains and a bus on July 7 killed 55 people, including the four suicide bombers, and injured some 700 others.

I know a lot of people are going to have knee-jerk reaction to this news (including the British government) but the logic isn't really that questionable: Because of the war in Iraq, Britain has gone from being a "safe zone" (because of it's relative leniency towards muslim immigrants) to being a target. Anyway, the far more interesting conclusion of the think-tank report is the one the AP is ignoring - that the UK gets little to no influence or power within the US-UK alliance. It looks like the UK, once the Empire on which the sun never set, can now be called an Honorary Mouse, just like Canada. To Queen Elizabeth: Welcome. Don't worry, you're still on all our money.

This is important, because some of you will remember that some Canadian quislings thinkers have said that, in order to influence American foreign policy we need to show our willingness to work with Washington. Call it the Ignatieff Hypothesis. This report shatters that myth, showing that despite doing yeoman's work in Iraq, the UK has had little effect on US policies. So those who would have Canada say "ready, aye ready" to our neighbours to the south should wake the hell up. All we would do by helping the US is ruin our good name. Canada's never been afraid of fighting the good fight - whether it was the Fascists in 1937, Germany and Japan in 1939, or Afghanistan in 2001. Next time there's a cause worth fighting for, I have absolutely no doubt the Canadian people will sign up.

It would be nice if the Americans could show up on time, for once.