Return of the Atlanticists

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With the British Conservative Party poised for a thunderous victory in the next general election, the future appears bright for increased cooperation between the United States and Great Britain in the War on Terror, according to a July 29 Heritage Foundation panel.

“Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s personal ratings are among the worst for a British leader in modern history, with 70% of Britons dissatisfied and just 17% approving,” said Niles Gardner, Director of the Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom at the Heritage Foundation.

So what can the United States expect from a Conservative British government? According to the expert panelists, a much more sensible defense strategy.

An issue that has been a pervasive one in the U.S. news cycle as November’s general election approaches has been time-tables for troop withdrawal in Iraq. Dr. Liam Fox, United Kingdom Shadow Secretary of State for Defense, left no doubts about the position of the David Cameron-led Conservative party.

“We need to be more realistic about time scales. We don’t believe there should be a time-table set for pulling our troops out of Iraq,” said Dr. Fox, adding that “people have expected too much, too quickly.”

Dr. Fox also spoke to some of the problems looming on the horizon, which a Conservative administration, as well as the next U.S. president, will have to contend with.

“Russia is an emerging threat. They just began a $189 billion expansion of defense,” said Dr. Fox.

He added commentary on the current situation with Iran, saying “Iran will continue to be a major issue,” and very quickly dispelled the notion that living with a nuclear Iran is a viable option.

“First is the nature of the regime itself, which when they talk about wiping Israel off the map they do not deserve to be in the family of nations that are nuclear weapon states. They have proven themselves willing to destabilize their neighbors and export terror,” Dr. Fox said, and added that we could then face a nuclear arms race in the world’s least stable region as countries such as Syria and Egypt would likely seek to enter the fray.

Sir Crispian Cuss, former Spokesman for the British Army, laid out the Conservative party’s vision for the military: “The reason the U.S. succeeds is because of good generalship and political will. What we don’t have under this government is political will.”

Cuss discussed the military’s shortcomings under the Labour government, saying that the forces which the Conservative party would inherit are underfunded, undermanned and underequipped due to the lack of support they received both financially and morally from the Labour government.

Moving forward, Cuss outlined the Conservative party’s strategy for improving the British military. “We need to make sure that resources balance commitments. We need to identify and articulate what it is we want to do and what we need to do it,” Cuss said.

With the Conservative party poised to seize a 180-plus seat majority in Parliament, it appears that the next U.S. president will be working with a United Kingdom that is much more defense-oriented and prepared to support U.S. ventures in the war on terror, that is, if the next president is so inclined.

Jeff Waldmann is an intern at the American Journalism Center, a training program run by Accuracy in Media and Accuracy in Academia.