Matt Frei's Washington Diary: Best of Friends?

.

As a senior British diplomat put it to me after the 9/11 terror attacks: "The world is a jumbo jet. The Americans are in the cockpit and in first class. And we are the only ones in club. Everyone else is in economy."

It is, of course, questionable whether this proximity to the pilot has allowed the Brits to steer the jumbo in other directions.

On Iraq, the Middle East and just about every other issue, the cockpit door on Britain's imaginary jumbo has remained firmly shut even to those special friends in club class. Just like on a real plane in fact.more