Who the Hell is Nile Gardiner?

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Nile Gardiner is a Washington-based foreign affairs analyst and political commentator. He appears frequently on American and British television and radio, including Fox News Channel, CNN, BBC, Sky News, and NPR

This is Nile Gardiners article in Britains Daily Telegraph. This news paper is not a tabloid, it is a broadsheet. It is also a news paper held in high regard around the world……make of it what you will.

What a difference 18 months and an oil spill makes. In January 2009 Barack Obama was hugely popular on this side of the Atlantic, and could have walked on water in the eyes of the British media, the political elites, and the general public. In June 2010 however he probably qualifies as the most despised US president since Nixon among the British people. In fact you can’t open a London paper at this time without reading yet another fiery broadside against a leader who famously boasted of restoring “America’s standing” in the world.

When even Obama’s most ardent political supporters in Britain, including Boris Johnson, are on the offensive against the White House, you know the president’s halo has dramatically slipped. It’s hard to believe that any politician could become more disliked in the UK than Gordon Brown, but Barack Obama is achieving that in spades. And as Janet Daley noted of the British press, the love affair with Barack is well and truly over.

The key catalyst for rising anti-Obama sentiment in the UK has been his disastrous handling of the BP issue, and his relentless desire to crush Britain’s biggest company. There is no doubting BP’s responsibility over the Gulf oil disaster, and it is right that the firm is being held to account for its failures. But the brutal, almost sadistic trashing of BP by the imperious Obama administration, which has helped wipe out about half its value, threatens its very future, as well as the pensions of 18 million British people and the jobs of 29,000 Americans. There is now the very real danger of the bankrupting of a great British enterprise, and the prospect even of a Chinese or Russian takeover.

Instead of adopting a constructive, statesmanlike approach, Barack Obama’s decision to launch a “boot on the throat” campaign, while adopting a thinly veiled Brit-bashing agenda, has generated significant bad blood in America’s closest ally. At the same time, the president has inexplicably rejected offers of help from the UK and an array of European countries, no doubt out of both pride and protectionism.

As I wrote previously, we are witnessing one of the worst exercises in public diplomacy by a US government in recent memory, one that could cause significant long-term damage to the incredibly important economic and political partnership between Great Britain and the United States. And for those who say this is minor storm in a tea cup, I would point out that it is highly unusual for a British Prime Minister to have to stand up to an onslaught against British interests by an American president, as David Cameron has just done. In fact the prospect of a major confrontation between Downing Street and the White House grows stronger by the day.

But this is not the whole picture. President Obama’s handling of BP is part of a far bigger problem. This is an administration that has consistently insulted Britain, and has even sided with her foes in some cases, most notably in its wholehearted support for Argentina’s call for negotiations over the sovereignty of the Falklands, a position that has been strongly backed by Venezuelan tyrant Hugo Chavez. Time and time again, the Obama team has undercut America’s key allies, from London to Prague to Jerusalem, while kowtowing to the enemies of the United States in the name of engagement. It is a disastrous foreign policy that not only weakens American global power, but generates resentment and anger in nations that have traditionally stood shoulder to shoulder with America.

(I could mention clandestine support for terrorist groups such as the IRA but I won’t)…oops…

The Anglo-American Special Relationship, the most successful partnership of modern times, will survive long after President Obama departs the White House. It is far bigger than any one president or prime minister. But there can be no doubt that it is being significantly damaged and weakened at this moment by the Obama administration’s sneering approach towards Great Britain, at a time when British and American soldiers are fighting and dying alongside each other in a major war in Afghanistan. President Obama needs to see the big picture and understand that his anti-British posturing is hugely counter-productive and highly offensive. He is already one of the least popular US presidents of modern times, not only in the eyes of the American people, but now the people of Britain as well.

I’m so so glad these aren’t my words…or even words quoted from a British tabloid.

The Daily Telegraph people. Not a tabloid.

Is anyone over there listening?

Is anyone over there prepared to listen?

Inquiring minds would love to know…

Nite America…

About Post Author

Four Dinners

An outspoken contributor from the UK.
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13 years ago

This has been on my mind so much That I’m obsessed with whether to write what I’m feeling. I really don’t like to hurt anyone’s feelings.
So I pull back on my choice of words..
At the beginning of this post, there was pretense that dinners was just mirroring what others were saying. In the course of idea exchange it rather quickly changed to what Dinners was truly feeling. I don’t think all the well meaning words one could muster up in order to shed light on what Most Americans feel towards the Brits. was accepted.
For any further correspondence with Dinners I must limit it to any other subject but this one. For on this, I find for me Dinners has become irrelevant. I don’t and won’t consider his ideas on the subject. I have the highest regards for him personally. Sometimes as we all know, agreement cannot be obtained. So next Friday night when it starts again, I’ll pass.

13 years ago

If any one speaks ill of the land of my birth, especially if they speak with malicious intent and ignorance, which has happened occasionally, then I become a stout defender of all things English, I lived there almost as long as you have. I was working in Birmingham during the Thatcher regime, fine PM my backside. She was a disaster for the working people, crushed my union, (I was a rep. too), with the help of Eddie Shah and Rupert Murdoch but I guess some of the mugs need people to worship, Queen Elizabeth was almost too much royalty for me without bowing down to Queen Margaret.

The same is true when jingoistic foreigners start making comments toward Americans, thinly disguised as fun, using veiled ‘Belgrano’ threats, using the royal ‘we’ speaking for the whole country, using long distance rants to defend criminal organizations, playing sympathy cards left and right ‘pensioners’ ‘the old people’ ‘freezing in the winter.’ Good grief.

I do see both sides, it’s easy for me to do, I have a wealth of experience living in both countries and I can smell bullshit when it wafts in, whether it be Stars and Stripy or Union Jackie.

Reply to  Holte Ender
13 years ago

Real letter from the editor! A heartfelt one that argues with common sense.

I was up way late/ 3am/ when I first responded to this post. I do not rescind any of it. I do feel strongly, as we all do. I’m doing as much as I might from the position I am in. Like some of you are probably doing.

Alan – Holte is putting out the best kind of mind / idea on all it… we need ‘listen’ to one another, find respect for each other and do the more positive things we are capable of to make a difference in all of this. We can.

Words have great power. I think blogger, most of all, would understand that. I realize that I forget it, too. Still, at the end of each day, I always go over my words to find the small ‘goodies’ in my day.
Words have such great power. Very much so.

13 years ago

We won’t think differently.

If I won the Euro lottery next friday and had 40 million pounds I’d cheerfully give a big chunk to the clean up operation.

We / I am not anti Obama. BP deserve to be brought to account.

It just isn’t being done in a very statesmanlike way.

The American companies who built and operated the rig have rarely been mentioned. American Health and Safety who wrongly passed the rig as safe haven’t been mentioned at all.

That’s why the Brits are feeling a bit peeved. It’s all and only BP’s fault – which, clearly it isn’t.

I’d never heard of Nile Gardiner until I caught his article. I’ve looked through every paper we have and without exception Obama is being critisised – for not behaving in a statesmanlike manner.

Old and young, left and right wing are all in agreement BP are shits but Obama is making it worse with some of his rhetoric.

That isn’t even a political comment. It just happens to be true – at the moment.

BSRanch – British pensioners didn’t invest in BP. The £1 in every £6 comes from BP’s taxable profits. It’s the state pension not private pensions and state pensioners are already the poorest and most vulnerable.

…How about America coughing up a few billion right now over Bhopal? Sod your pensioners and vulnerable – let ’em freeze / go hungry or whatever. Hand over the dosh to Bhopal straight away.

….How about America coughing up a few billion now over the Exhon Valdez disaster? America went to court to get compensation reduced. That’s a good way of accepting responsibility isn’t it?

Maybe BP could go to court and get the 20 billion reduced.

Would that make you angry if they did?

What would be different to America doing that over Exhon Valdez?

Nothing wrong with defending your position and, indeed, your President.

Nothing wrong with calling me names if that’s what turns you on.

I envy your absolute belief that you’re all right and everyone else is wrong.

Agree with us and our views and you’re cool. Disagree or hold a differing opinion or perspective and you’re a ‘teabagger’.

Isn’t life simple?

Holty : Thatcher made two mistakes. The Poll Tax and the destruction of mining communities. They are serious blemishes on her Premiership.

If not for those errors of judgement she’s actully considered by many from all political spectrums as a fine PM.

You do seem very vitriolic against Britain at times. Odd as an ex-pat I thought you’d be able to see another side.

For all her faults – and there were many – she wouldn’t allow Britain to be bullied as Argentina found to their cost.

Speaking of which…what’s this I hear about Obama saying we should negotiate sovereignty of The Falklands with Argentina? Did he say that? No idea. Hope not. We’re supposed to be allies.

Reply to  fourdinners
13 years ago

It just isn’t being done in a very states­man­like way.

So what? BP’s executives are lying, cold-blooded murderers. American workers are dead because of their criminal malfeasance. Dead. It happened before, in Texas City — see my comment above. The executives of BP knew that their neglect of safety procedures was costing human lives. Knowing that, they chose to carry on in the same way.

You talk about British pensioners dying. American workers have already died because of BP’s criminality.

It’s all and only BP’s fault — which, clearly it isn’t.

Horseshit. Yes, it is their fault. They were running the show. They chose to carry on with the same criminal negligence as they always have — see my comment above. They are entirely responsible.

I envy your absolute belief that you’re all right and every­one else is wrong [blah blah blah}.

You are willfully distorting the issue and evading the point. You are pretending that our holding BP responsible is some kind of dogmatism, whereas the facts show that they are responsible.

Re-read my comment above. BP is a criminal organization. Its executives are murdering thugs. The companies that invested British pension funds in BP knew this, or easily could have known it. They should have known that BP’s criminal behavior would produce a situation like this. Their greed and stupidity is entirely responsible for any losses that British pensioners suffer. Let the British government compensate those pensioners for whatever losses they face as a result of the greed and stupidity of the investment companies who put their money into a known criminal organization. The British brought this on themselves. It’s not our problem.

Nobody here blames Britain for what BP did, as I explained above. By writing postings like this, you are helping to create anti-British feeling in the US which did not previously exist. Americans don’t blame Britain for BP’s crimes, but we will never forgive British people who insist on trying to defend BP with this kind of twisted anti-logic and willful obliviousness to the facts.

You never addressed the specific points I raised in my comments above. Now you’re relying on rhetoric to evade facing the reality of the situation. You’ve been misled by the dishonesty of the media you rely on, tabloid or otherwise, and I think you know it. This is not a grey area. You are wrong. Deal with it.

13 years ago

4-D, I think that when the ocean currents brings the oil to Britain’s shores, they will think differently than you presented.

13 years ago

MH, I agree.
It really transcends money, in the end. Only fools do not see the conclusion that waits for the family of humanity as this unfolds. It’s about the dead, the dying and the legacy of a choaking planet. As long as greed, profit and war consume less than one percent of one percent of humanity. They are careless, unkind and shameful. This catalyst of destruction is meant to bring us to our senses en masse.
So
fuck the limey blowhard scribbler and get real.
We really do need to care for one another. I do think it’s what our President is trying to do constrained in politics and facing the possibility of big oil doing what it has always done.

13 years ago

This has been the damnedest 18 months I think any president in history has ever had to contend with and he has been criticized roundly for everything he has has done. I admit that even I have laid on some of my own because I thought, and still do, he was not aggressive enough with the “just say no” Repubs. But give the guy a break. First, he was not involved enough with the oil spill in the Gulf and not hard enough on BP, and now he is too hard on BP and too involved. He was, just today, accused of “shaking down” BP. He hasn’t been passionate enough about the disaster, c’mon folks, he is a Constitutional Law professor. He has been passionate since the first time he got laid and that only lasted 35 seconds. Perhaps the only thing that would have made everyone happy would have been if he had donned a cape and flown to the Gulf with a straw and sucked up all the oil and put it into one of BP’s ships and somehow brought those eleven workers back to life. Of course in between trips he could have also attended to the economy of the country, the North Korean issue, the immigration issue, and few other relatively minor things like the war in Afghanistan, the bank regulatory bill, the health care bills, etc.

Melissa
13 years ago

I guess we need a few more Joe Barton’s in this country. Homygawd!

BSRanch
13 years ago

The pensioners deserve what they get for investing in a company so devoid of ethics. They make money off costcutting and dangerous practice of BP and then cry when they have to pay the price.
Sorry, but our President is representing us well, if that doesn’t set well with some of the brits I can live with that.

13 years ago

Wait!!!! Seems I’ve heard this song and dance before. The outcome will be the same. Now I’m talking for me…..I don’t give two craps what the British think. The President is doing the right thing. I don’t care of your pensions, whether it be old ladies or anyone else. What the Brits don’t get is this is a world problem and not just the U.S.A. If we can’t stop this leak,it will affect you to. We don’t govern from what the Brits think we should do. Dinners, you can bring it up and up and up again, if the Brits think as you say, so be it. There wrong!

13 years ago

Not all newspapers in in Britain are crap, but ones you read are, The Daily Mail, tabloid horse shit, The Daily Telegraph, well regarded, world famous broadsheet horse shit and this guy you so proudly boast of Nile Gardiner is the Director of The Heritage Foundation’s Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom. Margaret Bastard Thatcher, one of the very lovely Ronald Reagan’s political slaves. Is this what you the people of Great Britain are coming too? Used and abused by the gutter press?

For anybody who is interested in the real NILE GARDINER Ph.d

13 years ago

Another pee…bloody hell..I must have drunk more beer than I realised in the England / Algeria match…;-)

Infidel : Bhopal? Not being overly endowed geographically – isn’t that the place where an American owned company screwed up everyones lives in a 50 mile radius?

Ahh…yes…’course it was…hang about…I don’t recall Union Carbide dishing out a 20 billion dollar cheque to sort it out?

You’re getting sarcastic again Dinners…go to bloody bed and shut up….;-)

hic

nite America

Perhaps they did…I am getting a bit absent minded lately…;-)

Reply to  fourdinners
13 years ago

Bhopal? Not being overly endowed geo­graph­i­cally — isn’t that the place where an Amer­i­can owned com­pany screwed up every­ones lives in a 50 mile radius?

Yes. My point was, the Indian government should have forced the perpetrators to pay up, so people there will understand why Obama is doing so in this case.

Your point about pension investments is addressed in my longer comment above.

13 years ago

Oso man : Chavez??? Freely elected??? Oh dear…..

osori
Reply to  fourdinners
13 years ago

Hi fourdinners!
yeah his elections have been fair, usually gets around 60% of the vote. what concerns people is his attempt to end term limits. Venezuela currently has 6 year limits, although I suppose as long as the elections are clean and they keep re-electing him it’s their business.

13 years ago

‘BP was named by Mother Jones Magazine as one of the “ten worst corporations” in both 2001 and 2005 based on its environmental and human rights records’

BP is a shit. British pensioners aren’t shits.

Give ’em a break eh?

British pensioners are, like all pensioners, old. They’ve done their ‘working bit’ and now they’re retired.

Prez? Just make sure whatever you do doesn’t threaten them.

Then we’re cool.

If it does….remember what the underdog can do eh?…;-)

13 years ago

Mikey : Apart from my penchant for PG Tips tea bags – which I freely admit to – I have no idea what a ‘teabagger’ is.

I think it refers to ‘right wingers’?

I’m not ‘right wing’. I’m ‘common sense’ wing – which, I admit, seems to be a bit to the right over here lately.

I don’t believe everything I see / read / hear but, after desperately trawling the interweb thingy, I can find absolutely nothing supporting Obama’s statements.

Gimme a link and I’ll look / listen.

I hate this current shit as I am – surprisingly? – very pro American.

Your Prez needs a new script writer mate..big time.

13 years ago

Ok…ok…ok…

Let me get this straight…

Every tabloid…every broadsheet…every politician interviewed on this particular subject (including American politicians)…every TV news programme whether SKY, BBC, ITV etc etc are wrong.

That it?

Everybody is wrong.

The Prez is NOT GUILTY of anti-British rhetoric. It isn’t true. Everybody from The Sun to The Daily Mail to SKY to the BBC to ITV to Al (bloody) Jazeera – or whatever it’s called is wrong.

The Prez says something and he didn’t say it.

If he did he didn’t mean it.

Oh for fucks sake.

I shouldn’t have got up for a pee again….too much beer…

Look peeps!

The Brits love America. Is that too difficult to understand?

However, The Prez is pissing the Brits off. He is. That is not a tabloid headline it is the way it is…currently.

The Brits are devastated about this oil leak stuff but…NO. We will not sacrifice our elderly pensioners to clear it up and BP profits supply £1 in every £6 to our pensioners.

Get the fuck away from (inadvertantly) threatening our elderly.

It ain’t gonna happen.

Guess what?

The USA isn’t in control. The Prez just thinks it is.

Live with it.

Love 4D x

Admin
13 years ago

I have family, lots of family, in Jolly ole England. We usually call each other on Friday night. Out of the four I spoke with, from Scotland to London, not a one knew what Dinners was talking about. They each said how much the English liked the president, except the conservatives of course, who they claim are nuts. They knew Gardiner and said he was considered a loony tune by mainstream Brits. Funny that Mr. Dinners is quoting him. Then again it really isn’t. After all he is a British Tea Bagger. No insult there Old Beaner. Just chatting you know.

Demeur
13 years ago

Dinners if an American company did the same thing to the UK I’d help you tar and feather them. Or maybe a little British justice like drawn and quartered.

13 years ago

Infedel : You are far cleverer than me so I readily accept what you say.

I am no supporter of BP in any way, shape or form.

However, I do believe that Britain must protect it’s old…it’s pensioners…and if that means telling Obama to ‘F’ off then so be it.

Like any other country we must put ourselves first. Protecting OUR pensioners is more important than worrying about US fishermen etc etc.

Every time I read / see / listen to reports on this bloody awful oil spill I cry…I kid you not.

I don’t cry for the fishermen etc..but that’s just me…I cry for the seabirds and fish and crabs and dolphins and whales and various other sealife creatures who have lost / are losing their lives to this absolute shite called humanity.

We are such scum I often wonder if we are not actually a lifeform but a virus….and perhaps Earth will one day rid itself of us…the virus…no more than we deserve…

Obama isn’t BIG enough.

I wish he was.

Perhaps he may grow into it.

I hope he does.

The Brits had such high hopes of him….

Still…he’s human…perhaps we should have known….

Reply to  fourdinners
13 years ago

Obama is sticking up for ordinary people victimized by a giant, grossly-unethical corporation. That’s what he’s supposed to do. Believe me, most people here wish he was being even tougher with BP.

As for the effect on the overall reputation of the US, I think people in places like, say, Bhopal would well understand Obama’s actions.

13 years ago

…oops…got up for a pee…back to bed you drunken old fart…;-)

13 years ago

Henny : We aren’t The Prez. What he is saying is what we might say…If you’re The Prez…or the Prime Minister…or the Leader of your country…you have to be bigger than that.

If you aren’t then you aren’t the right person for the job.

Obama is not the right person for the job.

He’s too small.

As most of us would be.

The Prez is a little man – and that’s not intended as an insult. I’m a little man / person. We mainly are.

Only those who can reach beyond are the right leaders. Sadly, Obama isn’t one of ‘them’. – not on the current showing anyroad.

Britain is getting genuinely angry with your Prez.

I don’t want this to happen but it is.

We…Britain…will cheerfully ‘do our bit’ to help with the devastation but…we will also protect ourselves and our old people. OUR pensioners will take priority over your fishermen for example. That doesn’t mean we don’t care about your fishermen and their livlihoods but we won’t allow a pensioner over here to lose out. That’s the way it is.

If ONE grandmother dies of cold next winter due to BP’s ‘payment’ then Britain will move away from the USA – and rightly so.

That will be an even greater tragedy.

Your Prez is, at the moment, about as statesmanlike as Attila The Hun.

This is not good.

Ultimately, if he doesn’t back off, there is a real danger Britain (in the form of Prime Minister Cameron) will say “Sod off! If you think BP are completely British then they can be….and we are not paying a damn thing”

Not entirely productive eh?

We will always help America…see Afghanistan…but if you put our backs to the wall as The Prez is doing we’ll pull the plug.

A little Island we may be but enough is enough.

The Prez seems to think he can ‘arrange’ negotiations over The Falkland Islands…get a life!!!…Actually Mr Prez…mind your own fucking business!!!

We’ll sink Belgrano mark II and we’ll sink any USA ships who get involved too come to that. Our Falklands so back off and mind it! OUR argument with Argentina, not yours so fuck off and mind it!!!

He needs better advisors…and he needs them sooner than later.

He was very popular over here from day one. (I actually cheered when he was finally elected)

Now he’s about as popular as a dose of the clap.

His call.

I think he needs to think long and hard before he makes it.

Is he with us or against us?

We (this tiny little Island of Great Britain) will kick the crap out of anyone who threatens our well being – and that includes The Prez.

I suspect, if he gets this in his head, he’ll chill a bit.

We can be a bit tasty when we’re roused you know….

Reply to  fourdinners
13 years ago

We can be a bit tasty when we’re roused you know….

Absolutely delicious, I’m sure.

Admin
13 years ago

Nile Gardiner is the British version of America’s Tea Baggers. He is the British Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Palin and etc. all rolled into one.

I have never heard any criticism of Britain by any American and I am a news junkie. Gardiner is a Right Wing Tea Bagging Dick Head 🙂 Now that’s a rant 🙂

osori
13 years ago

The referral to a freely elected president (Chavez) as a tyrant proves the reporter plays fast and loose with the facts.

And I concur completely with MH’s sentiments regarding outrage.

13 years ago

ps…as I retire for the night…it’s 11 pm here and I’m sulking over England’s abysmal showing vs Algeria in the World Cup….

The Falkland Islands are The Falkland Islands. They are not, and never will be The Malvinas.

We sank one Belgrano and we’ll bloody well sink another. Let The Prez know that eh?

Peace and love from England x

13 years ago

er….by the way…wasn’t I saying something similar a while back?….and getting slagged for it?

…just saying…;-)

13 years ago

Incidentally…I am aware that anti-American sentiment, when it occurs over here – which is rarely – tends to be more vitriolic than anti-British sentiment, when it occurs over there.

I suppose, being a small Island, we tend to shout louder?…;-)

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