The Exchange of Gifts

While this blog is dedicated to national security issues, there was an article written by Cliff Thier on the American Thinker today that caught my attention enough to try an amplify his voice. It had to do with the “gifts” President Obama gave to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

I read articles from the London Times and London’s Daily Mail touting how much the gifts were in poor taste. While many in the established media have a tendency to blow things completely out of proportion, I wanted to see the comments posted by those who read the articles. What became obvious to me was that the everyday Brit was also somewhat put off and that deeply saddens me. I spent four months working for the House of Commons in London as an overseas research assistant (Hansard Scholars Programme) and there is no other country I feel a stronger affinity for outside of the US. Britain has stood by our side through some of our darkest moments and I, for one, am deeply grateful to the British people. I am also certain that most everyone I know has the same feelings about the Great Britain.

Mr. Their does a great job in his article apologizing and thanking British. He does so by describing the gifts given to us and the world by the British:

“Worse, Mr. Obama apparently is ignorant of the history of your people and the lasting gifts that you have given to America.

Please let me thank you for those precious gifts.

Thank you for your gift of radical and dangerous ideas of freedom for which your people have fought and died.

Thank you for your gift of your navy’s bringing to an end the Atlantic slave trade — the first use of a nation’s navy for a solely moral purpose.

Thank you for your gift of standing fast while standing alone against the terrible, murderous onslaught of the Nazis.

Thank you for your gift of standing shoulder to shoulder with the United States during the 70 years of costly — but finally victorious — war against the great sanguinary evil of Communism.

Thank you for your gift of comfort by standing first and strongest with us in the grim days after 9/11.

Thank you for your gift of sending real soldiers to fight and die alongside our men and women liberating the 45 million people of Iraq and Afghanistan.

And, thank you for your multitude of gifts of science, literature, art and music.

We will always be grateful for your friendship.”

It seems to me 25 DVD shows thoughtlessness towards one of our greatest allies and that is a screaming shame.