Slow learners

LONDON (AP) - British Prime Minister Tony Blair's close relationship with President George W. Bush is "totally one-sided" and has given Britain no leverage over U.S. foreign policy, a U.S. State Department official said in a British newspaper report.

The Times of London said Thursday that Kendall Myers told an audience in Washington that Britain's role as a bridge between the United States and Europe is "disappearing before our eyes."

Myers, a senior U.S. State Department analyst, said despite British attempts to influence U.S. policy, "we typically ignore them and take no notice - it's a sad business."

Myers made the remarks Tuesday at an academic seminar on the U.S.-British relationship at Johns Hopkins University's Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, the newspaper said.

Myers said the transatlantic relationship "was a one-sided relationship that was entered into with open eyes...There was nothing."

"There was no payback, no sense of reciprocity."

This is the fundamental problem with the oft-heard Canadian cliche that the Canadian government must, above all, retain good relationships with the American government. Remember Paul Martin's people saying over and over that he would have a better relationship with Bush than Chretien did? Note Michael Ignatieff's constant refrain that he refuses to engage in anti-Americanism for political gain?

Well guess what: the "costs" of anti-Americanism have to be judged in relation the the "benefits" of a pro-American stance. The benefits of pro-Americanism are basically zero at this point, especially for a country like Canada. The costs, therefore, have to be small if any.

Be nice if one of our political leadership wised up to that fact some day.