It’s very hard to justify a Royal Family member criticizing a close ally’s foreign policy at any time. But when that country is the U.S. and he is about to travel the Southern states on a trade mission promoting British exports, it looks a lot like carelessness.
The Duke of York — Britain’s Special Trade Ambassador
The Duke of York will be meeting Southern business leaders who are mostly Republican politically and overwhelmingly support the policies of President Bush.
In an interview with the Herald Tribune newspaper, Andrew’s point was that the White House should have listened and learned more from Britain’s experiences of Empire and of similar insurgencies around the world.
He believes that the consequences of the Iraq war have led to a “healthy scepticism” toward Washington and a feeling of “why didn’t anyone listen to what was said and the advice that was given?”.
He reaffirmed that the U.S. is Britain’s number one ally but thought there were “occasions when people in the UK would wish that those in responsible positions in the U.S. might listen and learn from our experiences”.
The Duke claimed said that because of its imperial history, Britain had experienced much of what the U.S. is currently going through on the world stage.
“If you are looking at colonialism, if you are looking at operations on an international scale, if you are looking at understanding each other’s culture, understanding how to operate in a military insurgency campaign, we have been through them all,” he said.
“We’ve won some, lost some, drawn some. The fact is there is quite a lot of experience over here which is valid and should be listened to.”
This begs the question of how much experience of Empire is to be found among members of the current Labour Government, an anti-colonial, anti-military party, which refuses properly to equip our forces while sending them to fight two foreign wars without sound military objectives. Americans might rightly say, “physician heal thyself”.
Naturally, this has drawn a torrent of criticism from Republican institutes, like the Heritage Foundation, as well as from a wide spectrum of opinion. Andrew may have been fortunate that his comments were publicized on Super Tuesday, which has to some extent drowned them out. Imagine the effect on a slow news day.
Airmiles Andy seems to have morphed into Shot-Foot Andy.
For readers in the UK, there’s a new documentary airing tonight at 8pm on Channel 4.
