Bombast in the Black Sea: the Latest British Provocation
Post-World War II British foreign policy has included a number of provocative steps that have weakened British standing; created complications in the international arena; and raised the possibility of serious confrontation. In the 1950s, the British were the ringleaders in the last gasp of European colonialism: a British-French-Israeli conspiracy to topple Egypt’s Gamal Abdel Nasser and occupy the Suez Canal. In the 1980s, the British ended up in a war with Argentina over the Falkland Islands, projecting power over thousands of miles to save British sheepherders. In the 1990s, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher goaded President George H.W. Bush to pursue war in Iraq (“don’t go wobbly on me, George) at a time when Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev was trying to arrange for an Iraqi troop withdrawal from Kuwait to prevent war. In the 2000s, Prime Minister Tony Blair was the only West European leader to enthusiastically support the U.S. invasion of Iraq, supplementing the lies and chicanery of the Bush administration to justify war. This month, the British send a destroyer into the Black Sea to challenge the Russian occupation of Crimea, which complicates Western relations with Russia at a time when Presidents Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin are moving awkwardly to end the free fall in their bilateral relations and to institutionalize a diplomatic dialogue on central issues such as arms control and cybersecurity.
