Here is some Friday afternoon material from Gerard Baker in The Times:
Confronted with this awkward turn of events, Reg’s angry successors are asking their cohorts: “What have the Americans ever done for us?” “Well, they did get rid of the Taleban in Afghanistan. ’Orrible bunch, they were.”
“All right, the Taleban, I grant you.”
“Then there was Iraq. Knocked off one of the nastiest dictators who ever lived and gave the whole nation a chance to pick its own rulers.”
“Yeah, all right. Fair enough. I didn’t like Saddam.”
“Libya gave up its nuclear weapons.”
“And then there’s Syria. Thousands of people on the streets of Lebanon. Syrians look like they’re pulling out.”
“I just heard Egypt’s going to hold free presidential elections for the first time. And Saudi Arabia just held elections too.”
“The Palestinians and the Israelis are talking again and they say there’s a real chance of peace this time.”
“All right, all right. But apart from liberating 50 million people in Iraq and Afghanistan, undermining dictatorships throughout the Arab world, spreading freedom and self-determination in the broader Middle East and moving the Palestinians and the Israelis towards a real chance of ending their centuries-long war, what have the Americans ever done for us?”
