UK Poll: British to close to USA/Israel overreacted

... The perception that our government has set British and European interests aside in order to stay in the slipstream of the US administration is in certain respects a caricature - as the robustly supportive attitude of Downing Street towards the strong statements of the foreign office minister Kim Howells indicates. But the caricature contains enough truth to further weaken British interests abroad and to further damage the government's already weakened standing at home.

It is indeed a global and an American tragedy of our era that the Bush administration is so rarely willing to engage wholeheartedly with international issues and crises, including in the Middle East, except on its own terms. The answer to that tragedy is certainly not to play to the international anti-American gallery as some would prefer. But Britain garners little respect and sustains enormous damage from pretending that the uniquely difficult character of the Bush administration somehow does not matter. Ministers do not deceive us by this pretence and they should not deceive themselves either. If they are not prepared to face up to the domestic and international consequences this time, it will be clear that they have learned nothing from the Iraq war. ...