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The special relationship?


Does the special relationship exist?  

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  1. 1. Does the special relationship exist?


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  • Poll closed on 30/08/21 at 11:00

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1 hour ago, Bill said:

I’d say that’s exactly what a special relationship is.

That maybe so, but the same can be said then for many countries around the world with relationships with the US. How special does it need to get before it becomes something different than just good relations. I.e, do countries have to commit forces like we did to support US aims in the Middle East and Africa or just share intel like the EU do with the US? It may be down in the fine detail and not obvious to us plebs, but it does not seem anything special at governmental level.

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The US having been an Anglophone country will have had something to do with it though American-English is diverging from English-English. (So is the English spoken in Britain, come to think of it)

 

There were three main contenders for the north American land mass, Britain, France and Spain. Britain pretty much eliminated the French in the first round and there was never a real conflict with Spain. 
 

The signatories of the Declaration of Independence all have British names with two possible exceptions. The revolutionaries got rid of both King and Parliament but they didn’t abandon history and tradition.  Most States have English Common Law as the basis of their legal systems. The US Bar Association look to Magna Carta not to the Code Napoleon.  
 

Immigration 1900-1945 should have diminished Anglo influence. That it didn’t do so might be because most immigrant groups with one notable exception aspired to be American, to conform to what existed. Post-War immigrants may be different.

 

In the Falklands campaign, the US had a ghost Carrier on standby but according to some reports we couldn’t get bullets from Belgium so the special relationship existed then. Will what’s left survive Biden (he’s Irish, apparently) and Harris? Probably not.

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Remember that time when the U.S.A. exchanged 50 terrible destroyers for 99 year long free lease of many British territories in the Caribbean and Canada.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Destroyers-for-bases_deal

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Destroyers-for-bases_deal&oldid=1038173396

Edited by ranger_syntax
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26 minutes ago, ranger_syntax said:

Remember that time when the U.S.A. exchanged 50 terrible destroyers for 99 year long free lease of many British territories in the Caribbean and Canada.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Destroyers-for-bases_deal

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Destroyers-for-bases_deal&oldid=1038173396

Yep, and we only paid the WW2 debt off in the year 2000, although it was at lower interest.

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  • 1 year later...

There's clear practical evidence of a special relationship but those who expect to see it expressed in soap opera terms of overt sentimentality are going to be sorely disappointed. It was never a back-slapping love-in, nor would it have any real value if it was.

 

However, I understand it's de rigueur in certain circles to use the absence of hugs 'n kisses to undermine any presumption of a working relationship with the Big Satan.

 

 

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1 hour ago, Bill said:

There's clear practical evidence of a special relationship but those who expect to see it expressed in soap opera terms of overt sentimentality are going to be sorely disappointed. It was never a back-slapping love-in, nor would it have any real value if it was.

 

However, I understand it's de rigueur in certain circles to use the absence of hugs 'n kisses to undermine any presumption of a working relationship with the Big Satan.

 

 

A cursory glance at the author's other tweets will reveal much about his motives to interpret that video clip in the way he did.  

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