Principal Obama admonishes Brown the Truant

President of the USA, Barack Obama has had a chit-chat with Gordon Brown, Prime Minister of Britain. In this first telephone call between the two men in several months, Obama is reported to have expressed disappointment over the release of the only person convicted in the December 1981 bombing of a Pan-Am jetliner, which killed 243 passengers and 16 members of the crew. Abdelbeset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi, 57 was released last month in Scotland on compassionate grounds since he is terminally ill.

Gordon Brown, for his part, had quickly washing his hands off: ‘It was those Scots,’ he had said, or something close to that. The Prime Minister’s office, in a statement regarding the conversation had studiously avoided reference to Obama’s disappointment.

No. 10, Downing Street has edited off that part of the conversation in its version, it is reported. In its formal statement, Downing Street has not mentioned Megrahi, choosing to focus on the Pittsburgh G20 Summit and Afghanistan and of course to wax eloquent on the ‘special relationship’ the two countries enjoyed.

According to the White House statement, Obama had ‘appreciated’ (deeply) the sacrifices made by Britain’s Armed Forces in Afghanistan.

The Lib Dem spokesman on foreign affairs, Ed Davey had observed: “If (Brown) can’t be straight with people about what he has said to Barack Obama (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/barack-obama), then not only is it embarrassing in respect of our relationship with the US, but it further diminishes Brown as a Prime Minister.”

What is really happening here? Take away the diplomatic verbiage and you have Barack Obama rubbing Brown’s head, patting him on his back, saying ‘Good boy, good work’ (for Britain’s part in those horrendous crimes against humanity being perpetrated in Afghanistan).

But then Obama plays the school Principal, admonishing an accomplished truant, wrapping him on his knuckled: ‘Hey boy, you are way out of line; this has to stop’.

What is Brown doing, exactly? Well, he is essentially saying, ‘No, Sir, it was not me, it was that other boy, that other bad, bad, bad boy!’ As for Ed Davy, he’s saying, ‘Look Gordon, you are getting all of us into trouble with the principal; if this goes on, we will have to get a new class monitor.’

The entire episode is a perfect in-a-nutshell ‘long and short’ of the US-Britain relationship. Gordon Brown may think that he is a big time player on the global stage; the truth however is that Britain is little better than a client state.

No? Well, in that case Brown could have told Barack, ‘Look Mr. President, we do things our way here.

You really can’t expect us to mimic you and still call ourselves a respectable member in the family of nations, can you?’ Perhaps he could have taken a different approach: ‘But, but, but Mr. President, we’ve helped you so much in Afghanistan and Iraq, staunchly backed your country even as it became clear that Iraq never possessed weapons of mass destruction and that the human cost of what is clearly an un-winnable effort in Afghanistan is slipped from ridiculous to unacceptable and genocidal proportion. Surely, you must ignore these little hiccups on our part?’

To which, Obama would of course have replied dryly: ‘Gordon, it is not your’s to reason why, it’s your’s but to do and die!’ ‘Yes Sir, three bags full sir; could you in future write our press releases for us?’ Gordon Brown would have had to say. And Obama would retort, ‘Are you trying to be smart, Gordon?’ ‘No, no, no, not at all Your Highness; it is just that I am scared shitless that I would make a mistake and cause you embarrassment!’ ‘Hmmm,’ Obama would have concluded.

Well, Gordon Brown and Barack Obama can do whatever they like.

They are free to talk about carbon emissions, the relative merits of the best beers produced in their country, each other’s political woes or the health of spouses and loved ones. That’s their business. What I can’t understand is why Barack is so upset about a convicted bomber being released from prison.

Let me explain.

Barack Obama is a man who showed the world how susceptible he is to aggressive lobbyists with dubious agenda.

Barack was suckered in by the LTTE’s international lobby in May 2009 to issue a statement calling for an immediate halt to operations carried out by the Sri Lankan Security Forces.

Why? So that the world’s most ruthless terrorist, Velupillai Prabhakaran, could escape, along with his closest buddies.

Abdelbeset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi is terminally ill. He cannot cause any harm to anyone now and that issue will be put beyond a shadow of doubt when he passes on.

Perhaps Barack Obama considers Megrahi a threat to international security. He should know, since his foreign policy, just as that of his predecessors, is the greatest threat to security in the world. As for Gordon Brown, I would advise Obama to go easy on him: he is not terminally ill, but he is certain terminal-something, politically speaking.

Poor him.

Malinda Seneviratne is a freelance writer who can be reached at [email protected].