I got to wondering the other day as to why Great Britain seems to align itself more with U.S. policies than any other European nation. When it came to us invading Iraq the Brits were right there while the French and many others were screaming no. What conclusions have I reached about this observation. The answer is, at least in my twisted mind, super power mentality.
Those of us who are history buffs know that before 1950 or so Great Britain was the dominant super power in the world. The Great British Empire was spread across much of the world. Their navy was absolutely second to none. When the U.S. took over that mantle the Brits reluctantly fell into the background but their superpower mentality just wouldn’t go away. So now it seems they like to play the role of the wise old superpower helping the new kid on the block get it right. I’m sure the same thing happened to the Romans but my history lessons don’t go back far enough to know who they played the “wise old superpower” with.
Lets zoom forward X number of years (you can fill in the X with whatever number you want) to when the has been U.S. folks will be strutting around behind China as the one helping the new kid. I don’t expect that China will appreciate the wise old superpower anymore than we do.
But what do I know.
RJ's Corner - Having My Say 
Kind of interesting to project a single personality upon a whole country…. though it does seem to work, at times. Particularly for these once-and-future colonial powers.
Of course, the avatars that they choose (Uncle Sam, John Bull, not sure what the French have – Napoleon?) seem to do just that in a somewhat nebulous way.
And the parallels between ancient Greece and Rome and the USA are way scary (I used to teach ancient Civilizations). What’s this about being “destined to repeat history”?
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