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Donald Rumsfeld, the former US defence secretary who sent American forces to war alongside British troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, has criticised President Barack Obama for undermining the relationship between the two close allies.
"My impression is that the Obama administration is taking steps that at least symbolically have distanced his White House from what I have throughout my career valued as a special relationship,"Mr Rumsfeld told The Sunday Telegraph.
"I don't know what it looks like from the other side of the pond, but certainly here it has dramatised the things that the Obama administration has done that are unhelpful to the relationship."
The former defence secretary cited Mr Obama's actions and words, from his early removal of the bust of Winston Churchill from the Oval Office to his recent assertion that the US does not have "have a stronger friend and stronger ally" than France.
"It seems gratuitous to me,"Mr Rumsfeld said last week in an interview to coincide with publication of Known and Unknown,his 730-page memoir of his time in office under President George W Bush. The book, the latest in a series of insider accounts from those who served in the Bush administration, went straight to number one on Amazon, the online bookseller.
President Obama's glowing reference to French allies was particularly galling for the veteran Republican official who had taken a very different view - dismissing both France and Germany as "problems" and "old Europe" when they opposed the US invasion of Iraq in March 2003.
Mr Rumsfeld, 78, who was the country's youngest Pentagon chief under President Gerald Ford, then returned to the same post 25 years later under Mr Bush,also expressed his concerns about the impact of cutbacks in military spending by Nato allies.
Spending on welfare state projects was squeezing out European military expenditure, which now stands at a "historic low" of about two per cent of GDP, he noted.
"It's of concern that pressure for social legislation has been such that it's put downward pressure on defence investment in counties in Nato," he told The Sunday Telegraph, although he added that the alliance's expansion east and partnership with friendly nations was also bringing in extra capability.
It is "a shame" that Britain would be left without an effective "carrier strike" capability – a working aircraft carrier equipped with fighter jets – for a decade under the Government defence and security review, Mr Rumsfeld said.
"Your country has been one of the handful of countries that have had an extremely capable military – in different elements of military capability –and as a seafaring nation, I do understand your questions," he added when asked about the effect of the cuts on Britain's force readiness as a US ally. But he also emphasised the role of intelligence sharing, special operations and unmanned aircraft in an era of asymmetrical terror threats.
As defence secretary for nearly six years under Mr Bush, Mr Rumsfeld became famous or notorious, depending on perspective, for quips and response to media questions that mixed the acerbic, the oblique and the obfuscatory.
"My impression is that the Obama administration is taking steps that at least symbolically have distanced his White House from what I have throughout my career valued as a special relationship,"Mr Rumsfeld told The Sunday Telegraph.
"I don't know what it looks like from the other side of the pond, but certainly here it has dramatised the things that the Obama administration has done that are unhelpful to the relationship."
The former defence secretary cited Mr Obama's actions and words, from his early removal of the bust of Winston Churchill from the Oval Office to his recent assertion that the US does not have "have a stronger friend and stronger ally" than France.
"It seems gratuitous to me,"Mr Rumsfeld said last week in an interview to coincide with publication of Known and Unknown,his 730-page memoir of his time in office under President George W Bush. The book, the latest in a series of insider accounts from those who served in the Bush administration, went straight to number one on Amazon, the online bookseller.
President Obama's glowing reference to French allies was particularly galling for the veteran Republican official who had taken a very different view - dismissing both France and Germany as "problems" and "old Europe" when they opposed the US invasion of Iraq in March 2003.
Mr Rumsfeld, 78, who was the country's youngest Pentagon chief under President Gerald Ford, then returned to the same post 25 years later under Mr Bush,also expressed his concerns about the impact of cutbacks in military spending by Nato allies.
Spending on welfare state projects was squeezing out European military expenditure, which now stands at a "historic low" of about two per cent of GDP, he noted.
"It's of concern that pressure for social legislation has been such that it's put downward pressure on defence investment in counties in Nato," he told The Sunday Telegraph, although he added that the alliance's expansion east and partnership with friendly nations was also bringing in extra capability.
It is "a shame" that Britain would be left without an effective "carrier strike" capability – a working aircraft carrier equipped with fighter jets – for a decade under the Government defence and security review, Mr Rumsfeld said.
"Your country has been one of the handful of countries that have had an extremely capable military – in different elements of military capability –and as a seafaring nation, I do understand your questions," he added when asked about the effect of the cuts on Britain's force readiness as a US ally. But he also emphasised the role of intelligence sharing, special operations and unmanned aircraft in an era of asymmetrical terror threats.
As defence secretary for nearly six years under Mr Bush, Mr Rumsfeld became famous or notorious, depending on perspective, for quips and response to media questions that mixed the acerbic, the oblique and the obfuscatory.
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