Pauvres vaguelettes, poor Ferguson

Autre signe que les Britanniques ne sont pas vraiment partants pour la thèse de la provocation et du casus belli dans l’affaire des 15 prisonniers pris par les Iraniens, cette chronique de l’historien fameux et néo-impérialiste Niall Ferguson, dans le Sunday Telegraph du même jour. On connaît Ferguson, ses prises de position extrêmement vigoureuses, virulentes, en faveur d’une politique néo-impérialiste anglo-saxonne (l’ ‘anglosphère’). Fiévreusement favorable à la guerre contre l’Irak, Ferguson a rapidement connu une grande déception devant les déboires américanistes en Irak. Il en a tiré la conclusion que les USA n’étaient pas faits pour devenir un empire, celui que Ferguson appelait de ses vœux.

L’affaire des 15 Britanniques ranime la violente nostalgie de Ferguson pour l’empire britannique, pour constater bien entendu que ces temps-là ont disparu avec la reine Victoria. Où sont passées les vagues, Ferguson ? «…we need to understand James Thomson's immortal lines: ''Rule, Britannia! Britannia, rule the waves: Britons never shall be slaves.'' When first set to music by Thomas Arne in 1740 (after which, as if for emphasis, ''never'' became ''never-never-NEver''), this was a forward-looking injunction to Britain's rulers to go ahead and rule the waves, precisely so that Britons would no longer run the risk of being enslaved.»

En fait, ce que Ferguson regrette, ce sont les dames, ces vaillantes dirigeantes britanniques qui, depuis la grande Elisabeth jusqu’à la Dame de Fer, surent se montrer impitoyables pour que l’Empire existe, ou que son rêve ne meurt pas. «I suppose a remnant of that spirit survived into the 1980s. There was certainly something distinctly Victorian about the Falklands expedition: the scale of the venture, the distance covered and the relatively small number of Britons to be rescued. Yet today, 25 years on, we live in a different world. We could not re-fight the Falklands War if Argentina invaded the islands tomorrow. Nor can we send a raiding party to punish the Iranian government today. If military action is going to be taken against Iran this year, it will not be initiated by Britain, but by the United States. And, to judge by Faye Turney's conspicuous absence from the front pages of the American papers, a British hostage crisis won't be the casus belli.

»Which means that we fall back on the tried and tested options of the pre-Victorian Empire. Our captives can either be left to languish, or their freedom can be bought. But what might be the price of saving Seaman Turney? A free pass for the Iranian nuclear programme? Or maybe just an Iranian-controlled Basra?

»As he approaches the 10th anniversary of becoming Prime Minister, Mr Blair consciously invites comparisons with Lady Thatcher, the only other premier since Lord Liverpool to endure for so long. Yet this new crisis of captivity, like Mr Blair's needless kow-towing over slavery, exposes the profound differences between him and her. When it comes to the crunch, Mr Blair's greatest defect is that he is, despite his undoubted transgressions, fundamentally a nice guy. Margaret Thatcher was neither. Nor, come to think of it, was Queen Victoria. Nor Britannia.

»If only you could come back, you iron ladies. Even though you never said sorry — or precisely because you didn't — all would be forgiven.»

Mis en ligne le 1er avril 2007 à 22H41