I have been unfashionably fond of America since my days reading DC Comics and watching "Rawhide" on TV as a small boy. At university, I coined the word "yankophile" during a debate, noting how odd it was that we have the words "francophile", "russophile" and "sinophile", but no word for the love of our best friends. I love American popular culture (who doesn't?) and I feel more at home in New York than London. I enjoy and admire American literature. The greatest living writers in our language are all American (read this book if you think I am wrong), which gives the lie to the nasty, snobbish sneering of the Guardianisti.
So, as a confirmed yankophile, this was the most difficult story not to blog about during my recent purdah. It's disappointing (though not surprising) to someone who lived in Moscow for years and has Russian friends to find the Kremlin is still obsessing about unlikely exchanges of nuclear nastiness. But it's devastating to learn of what appears to be an un-nervingly wicked betrayal of America's most loyal ally.
I want to believe this story only shows just how un-American Obama is. Time will tell. In the meantime, it certainly accounts for Hilary Clinton's disproportionate reaction to the activities of Wikileaks*. She is a lady with more to hide than we ever imagined. With one nugget of information, Wikileaks has shaken my faith in America in a way decades of Soviet propaganda (and pernicious Guardian sneers) could not. I wonder how many more such revelations are to come.
*Not blocked by the Great Firewall of China, whereas The Last Ditch now is. Hmm.
