Following the bomb attacks last Thursday US President George Bush, addressing an audience of 1000 FBI agents but clearly intending his words to be heard by a wider audience, said “In this difficult hour, the people of Great Britain can know the American people stand with you”. (BBC News)
Well, actually that has quickly turned out not to be true – they aren’t standing with us but ever so slightly further away outside of the M25… It seems that American soldiers stationed at bases in the UK have been banned for travelling anywhere inside the M25, i.e London. (BBC News). Are these not the brave men and women that the US relies upon to go into difficult situations around the world to promote America’s brand of freedom? If they can’t handle a shopping trip to London a week AFTER a bomb attack then the US should be pretty worried about the state of their defences.
I am really struggling not to use the word “hypocrite” here (oops it just slipped out) but I really cannot think of anything else to describe it. How can you on the one hand give support and then with the other take it away? It’s an art that clearly only the Americans have mastered.