I never thought I'd say this, especially less than a fortnight after the Royal Wedding, but my countrymen's reactions to the death of Osama bin Laden have made me doubt my pride in being British.
The foul outpouring of sneering anti-Americanism, legalistic quibbling, and concern for the supposed human rights of our modern Hitler have left me squirming in embarrassment and apology before my American friends. Yet what I most despise my fellow Britons for is their absolute refusal, publicly or even privately, to celebrate the most longed-for news in a decade.
This was a military operation in a long war against an enemy commander whose courier started the shooting in a compound that, for all the Navy SEALs knew, might well have been booby-trapped. The most famous video clip of that commander is of him firing an automatic weapon. ...
From Britain's pathetic and ignoble reaction to the death of our greatest ally's No.1 foe, I fear for our fortitude in the continuing war against terror. The British government in London and the British Army in Afghanistan are magnificent, but if the people themselves are shot through with what Winston Churchill called "the long, drawling, dismal tides of drift and surrender," I wonder whether we can be counted upon for much longer.
The British people should be celebrating how their many owe so much to those few who defended them by reaching into a terrorist's lair and killing the beast.
I fear that worries that President Obama has killed the special relationship between America and Britain have it all wrong. If what we did on May 1, 2011 horrifies so many British people, the British people killed the relationship long before January 2009.
UPDATE: The British leadership is eager to begin drawing down troops in Afghanistan over the objections of the British military. Once that army is home, I doubt we shall see another British army out on campaign again. Oh, battalions might be sent into short actions again. Or perhaps might be attached to an American brigade. Or even as part of a multi-national European brigade. But British soldiers are in their last campaign to fight and defeat an enemy. The thin red line is coming home.
UPDATE: So is there outrage over the continuing failure of British and French aircraft to arrest Khaddafi?
NATO airstrikes struck Moammar Gadhafi's sprawling compound in Tripoli and three other sites early Thursday, hours after the Libyan leader was shown on state TV in his first appearance since his son was killed nearly two weeks ago.
Explosions thundered across the capital and ambulances raced through the city as the last missile exploded.
Or do the British only get upset with America killing a thug during war?
