Breeze Perspectives: Are you lonesome tonight, Mr. Presdient?
Departure of Bush’s most steadfast ally will not change the ‘special relationship’ between America and Britain
By Jeff Genota, contributing writer
Posted on September 18, 2006

Earlier this summer, President Bush hosted a fellow baseball fan and friend, Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, to a “sayonara” summit in Washington that culminated with a pilgrimage to the Graceland mansion of Elvis Presley, of which Koizumi is a big fan. The special treatment that the president gave Koizumi accentuated his value of the fruitful bilateral alliance, and that Mr. Bush will miss having foreign leaders like him on his side. The same kind of emotion will kick in again as his most loyal foreign ally, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, steps down next May after caving in to pressure from his own Labour Party. At that point, President Bush will have lost most of the loyal allies that backed him from the start, and must now prepare to make major changes to his international agenda in a world inhospitable to his views. Although the “special relationship” appears fractured in the past years, it will not crumble due to the two nations’ mutual necessity for each other to shape international politics.

 Tony Blair has been a close friend of the United States since coming to power in 1997. He and his successor-in-waiting, Britain’s finance chief Gordon Brown, both shared ideological kinship with Bill Clinton and the “third way” center-left agenda that helped Clinton’s presidency and catapult Blair’s Labour Party to power. He then followed the path of his past predecessors like Margaret Thatcher and Winston Churchill to forge a “wartime” relationship with George W. Bush after Sept. 11 to embark in an ambitious neoconservative agenda. Blair sided with Bush’s vows, from taking the fight to terrorists to remaking the Middle East hospitable for freedom and democracy. Even after the Israel-Hezbollah war, Prime Minister Blair has continued to back his American ally as the international echo of the Bush’s foreign affairs rhetoric, even at the dismay of domestic mood that culminated to his departure announcement earlier this month.

 Mr. Blair deserves the title “The American Prime Minister,” instead of Bush’s “poodle.” Critics are erroneously quick to pin him for sticking to his guts in favor of American foreign policy. Britain’s foreign relations have historically leant toward its cultural soul mate on the other side of the Atlantic, and will continue to do so in the immediate future. Furthermore, it maintains a degree of independence due to national interest issues such as the European Union, combating poverty in Africa and global warming. He will be remembered for championing “third-way” politics that has energized centrist politics worldwide. Blair simply attracts American adoration from both parties for his “can-do” optimism, upbeat attitude and shared values, but cannot be blamed for riding the trends of Britain’s foreign policy.

As the reality of Blair’s upcoming departure sinks in, a fitting rendition of Elvis’s “Are You Lonesome Tonight?” should reach Mr. Bush’s ears. Blair’s exit will remove a mainstay supporting Bush’s foreign policy. For the President to avoid an international lame-duck status in an environment inhospitable to his views, the White House must reconfigure its current foreign policy goals and rhetoric to find common ground with newer foreign leaders. Despite anti-Americanism at all-time highs, there is a breed of foreign leaders like Germany’s Angela Merkel who want to repair or build robust alliances with the United States without being pawns of Washington’s power. But history will still judge Mr. Bush as a polarizing figure, and any real positive change in international overtones will come after he leaves. While the “special relationship” is in a decline, it will rebound and continue because Washington and London know of another Elvis hit: “I Want You, I Need You, I Love You.”

Jeff Genota is a sophomore political science major.