On one-way relationships

A senior U.S. State Department analyst confirms what anybody who's been paying attention knew all along: that Tony Blair's inexplicably loyal stint as George Bush's lapdog hasn't allowed him to influence U.S. policy one iota:

British Prime Minister Tony Blair's close relationship with President George W. Bush is "totally one-sided" and has given Britain no leverage over U.S. foreign policy, a U.S. State Department official said in a British newspaper report.

The Times of London said Thursday that Kendall Myers told an audience in Washington that Britain's role as a bridge between the United States and Europe is "disappearing before our eyes."...

Myers said the transatlantic relationship "was a one-sided relationship that was entered into with open eyes...There was nothing."

"There was no payback, no sense of reciprocity."

Not that Blair and his inner circle appear willing to confront the truth even when it's put forward this starkly - after all, it isn't just Bush himself who's been forced into a deep cycle of denial to justify the unjustifiable. But while it may be too much to ask either the past lapdog or Canada's would-be successor at the foot of the bed to acknowledge reality, the lesson is one that any realistic evaluation of our own foreign policy should keep in mind.

Update: John at Dymaxion World has more.