U.S. and Britain

* Martin Walker is correct when he states that the special relationship between the United States and England is dead (Opinion, July 17). But his impression that we gave orders to the loyal British is totally false; it was in fact the tail that was wagging the dog.

Walker’s belief that the British were used as military cannon fodder is a joke. Many a young Americans can testify to serving in postwar Europe to forestall a possible Soviet invasion, at a considerable cost to this nation. I have recently returned from living in the United Kingdom, and became used to the distorted news coverage about America on television nightly. There is anger that we are not engaged in the former Yugoslavia, but the real problem is that the Europeans cannot decide what to do among themselves. The British particularly want to use American “cannon fodder” on a European problem.

Many British people live in the nostalgic past of British greatness. Those days are long gone. The future is in a united Europe, with Germany at its center. The British are the main obstacle to a peaceful, united Europe. The country is deeply divided on this issue.

Britain is not the quaint country pictured in airline commercials. Britain needs to wake up and realize its standing in the world and go from there. But I can assure Walker that Britons, not Americans, are to blame.

NEIL G. FLANAGAN

Costa Mesa