We had a good thing, Britain.

A really good thing.

You taught us this game. Mahan studied you. We just wrote bigger checks.

The deal was simple. We spend the trillions. Fight the hard wars. We even let you sit out Vietnam. And you? You hold the chokepoints you already own. You run Lloyd’s. Ships in the narrows, insurance on the hulls.

That’s all you had to do and we would back your interests with the strongest military and financial markets in the world.

That was the deal.

Now look at you.

You gave up Aden. Fine. You kept Diego Garcia so we could reach it with bombers. Now you’re giving that away too. To a Chinese client state.

You built Israel to guard Suez. Now your Foreign Secretary threatens to arrest their PM.

You built a base nearby to back it up. Iran hit your base in Cyprus. You didn’t have one warship in the Mediterranean. Spain got there first. Spain.

You gave up Hong Kong but backed Taiwan. Now you’re letting China build the largest embassy in Europe on top of London’s fiber-optic cables. We gave you Five Eyes. You gave Beijing a SIGINT platform in the heart of the City.

Gibraltar. Three hundred years. Actual sieges. Now the Spanish run your border checks.

You gave up Aden. Fine. You kept Diego Garcia so we could reach it with bombers. Now you’re giving that away too. To a Chinese client state.

You built Israel to guard Suez. Now your Foreign Secretary threatens to arrest their PM.

You built a base nearby to back it up. Iran hit your base in Cyprus. You didn’t have one warship in the Mediterranean. Spain got there first. Spain.

You gave up Hong Kong but backed Taiwan. Now you’re letting China build the largest embassy in Europe on top of London’s fiber-optic cables. We gave you Five Eyes. You gave Beijing a SIGINT platform in the heart of the City.

Gibraltar. Three hundred years. Actual sieges. Now the Spanish run your border checks.

Iran closed Hormuz. In the ‘80s, 540 ships got hit. Lloyd’s never blinked. Because your navy was there. Now Lloyd’s cancels. Because it isn’t.

You scrapped your only amphibious ships. Sold them. To Brazil. You have more admirals than warships.

You built two light carriers but they keep springing leaks and you don’t have enough escort ships to support them.

The English Channel. Stopped Napoleon. Stopped Hitler. Now you can’t stop rubber dinghies.

You had one job.

Have the warships, diplomatic backbone and insurance to support shipping through the straits.

That’s it. That’s all we asked.

And you blew it. Chokepoint by chokepoint. Called it progress.

Now hundreds of ships are stuck in the Persian Gulf and the world is blaming us.

But that’s ok. All those solar panels you bought from China will keep you warm in that dreary weather I guess.

The deal was simple. We spend the trillions. Fight the hard wars. We even let you sit out Vietnam. And you? You hold the chokepoints you already own. You run Lloyd’s. Ships in the narrows, insurance on the hulls.