'Grandson of the Empire'
Bombs at Westminster
Special to EIR
May 29—President Barack Obama's groveling and bumbling performance during his state visit to Great Britain May 23-26 was only outdone by his incredibly callous response to the immense disasters hitting the American heartland as he was embarking on his trans-Atlantic jaunt. In response to questions from reporters traveling with him to Europe, Obama rejected any idea of shortening his schedule and returning home to deal with the tornadoes and flooding in the Mississippi River basin, before spending three nights at Buckingham Palace, and receiving ovations from the adoring British Parliament at Westminster Hall.
Never mind that the city of Joplin, Mo., was practically leveled by a devastating tornado, and the Midwest corn and wheat crops were decimated by flooding, brought on by severe Winter and Spring storms, all predicted by the National Weather Service and ignored by the Obama White House, despite repeated briefings and demands for emergency funds to prepare for the coming disasters.
For Court Jester Obama, it was all show, and the show would go on, regardless of the crisis back home.
While Obama's public performances in London were widely ridiculed by the British media—for good reason—behind the scenes, the President forged an unprecedented Anglo-American security partnership that, in essence, places U.S. national security under the umbrella of the British Empire, and its doctrine of permanent war/permanent chaos.
'God Save the Queen'
Even before his departure for Europe, President Obama groveled before the Queen in an exclusive BBC interview from the Oval Office.
Asked by BBC about the amazing chemistry between the Obamas and the Windsors, the President responded,
"They are extraordinarily gracious people. They could not have been kinder to us.... I think what the Queen symbolizes, not just to Great Britain, but to the entire Commonwealth, and obviously the entire world, is the best of England. And we're proud of her."
Arriving in Dublin on Sunday, May 22, on the first stop of his six-day European tour, Obama abruptly cut short his visit to Ireland, to spend an extra night at Buckingham Palace, on the excuse that the volcanic eruption in Iceland the previous day might disrupt air travel between Ireland and England. The highlight of his Irish whistle-stop tour was his planting of a tree—right next to the tree planted by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, the previous week.
Once he touched down on English soil, the President hardly impressed his royal hosts or their courtiers, bungling his toast to the Queen at the state dinner at Buckingham Palace Tuesday night, by continuing to stand and speak, wine glass in hand, while the royal band played "God Save the Queen." Obama's gaffe prompted howls of laughter, and ridicule in the next day's London press. The President was scoffed as a bumpkin and a doofus for failing to master the most basic diplomatic protocol.
The next day, Obama succeeded in putting his audience of 1,500 MPs and Lords to sleep with his vacuous and propitiatory remarks before the joint session of Parliament at Westminster Hall. Practically apologizing for the American Revolution—which he called a brief aberration in the centuries-long special relationship—and embracing the evil Adam Smith as the author of the Anglo-American economic miracle, the President betrayed a lack of knowledge of American history that was stunning to anyone remotely familiar with Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, and the Federal Constitution.
Dual Loyalty
The Daily Telegraph's Andrew Gimson captured the reaction to the President in a May 25 commentary, opining that "Obama's oratorical inspiration was smothered by the cautious politeness of an American statesman."
"Perhaps Mr Obama was smothered also by his audience, which remained stubbornly unresponsive," he continued. "For most of the time the President had nothing to bounce off: no applause and certainly no shouts of praise or blame as might be heard in an American church or at an American political rally.
"The presidential text sounded as if it had been worked on so hard and conscientiously by a vast team of helpers that it had lost all savour, and been reduced to a series of orotund banalities, of the sort which can be heard at every tedious Anglo-American conference....
"It did not help to hear Mr Obama assert, after only a minute or two, that fortunately it's been smooth sailing between Britain and the United States ever since 1812, when we burned down the White House. Everyone present will have been able to think of occasions when this was not so. Suez did not seem like plain sailing."
Gimson conceded President Obama one brief moment of connection with his audience:
"Applause did break out when Mr Obama observed that it's possible for the sons and daughters of former colonies to sit as Members of Parliament, and for the grandson of a Kenyan who served as a cook in the British Army to stand before you as the President of the United States. Here was a personal connection rather than a platitude. We warm to Mr Obama, and feel an affinity with him, in part because he is a grandson of the British Empire. As well as being an American, he is one of us."
Ultimately, Gimson concluded, "The star of this show was not the President, but the stupendous roof of Westminster Hall."
Selling Out National Security
The real substance of President Obama's sessions in London was revealed by the London Guardian as the President was arriving in the British Isles. And it amounted to a fulfillment of a campaign promise that Obama made six months before his election—as well as a betrayal of vital U.S. national security interests.
Back in May 2008, then-candidate Obama made a campaign promise to "recalibrate" the Anglo-American special relationship, to give more clout to Britain. During a trans-Atlantic fundraiser hosted by the daughter of Rupert Murdoch in London, Obama declared,
"We have a chance to recalibrate the relationship and for the United Kingdom to work with America as a full partner.... It's no longer going to be that we are in the lead and everyone follows us. Full partners not only listen to each other, they also occasionally follow each other."
At the time, the Guardian crowed over Obama's words, which, not surprisingly, garnered $400,000 in campaign contributions from the American ex-pat community in London: Obama "has long been seen by British officials as the most anglophile of the three remaining presidential candidates, but these latest comments are his first public suggestion that the relationship is unequal and ripe for change."
On May 23, the day of his early arrival at Buckingham Palace for his three-day state visit, Obama announced the de facto merger of the U.S. and U.K. national security councils into a National Security Strategy Board (NSSB), to coordinate between the White House and 10 Downing Street on all security issues.
The new Strategy Board will be co-chaired by Obama's National Security Advisor Tom Donilon and his British counterpart, Sir Peter Ricketts, who, sometime this Summer, will be replaced by Kim Darroch. While Donilon is a political hack, who is reportedly loathed by Defense Secretary Robert Gates for his total lack of depth on national security affairs, Ricketts and Darroch are seasoned senior intelligence officer-diplomats, who will run circles around Donilon. Both Ricketts and Darroch have held senior diplomatic and security posts, with Ricketts having served as director of Britain's Joint Intelligence Board, during the period that the Tony Blair government was "sexing up" the dossier on Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction program, to make the case for the March 2003 Anglo-American invasion and overthrow of Saddam Hussein.
According to a report in the May 23, 2011 Guardian, one of the priorities of the new NSSB will be to coordinate U.S. and British negotiations with the Taliban, as the U.S. and NATO prepare for a major drawdown of forces from Afghanistan.
The British plan for Afghanistan and Pakistan is to hive off a large chunk of the border region, including the North West Frontier Province of Pakistan and adjacent areas of Afghanistan, as a Salafi-dominated no-man's land, populated by drug traffickers and Islamic radicals who can be expected to wage a permanent irregular war against Central Asia, China, and Russia.
A senior U.S. intelligence source confirmed this report, noting that Obama is committed to the Afghan drawdown for purely electoral purposes, while London is working with Saudi Arabia to create permanent "managed chaos" throughout this vital Eurasian crossroad. "It is one more instance, where the British have Obama's profile and are playing him to the detriment of vital U.S. global security interests," the source said.
