LONDON -- It is customary, when Washington says "jump," for British governments to ask "how high?" When they don't jump at all, their failure to comply should be treated with the same alarm as when one of those old pit canaries, kept in coal mines to detect the buildup of carbon monoxide, topples quietly off its perch.
The last time a British government resisted Washington's demands to sign up for some foredoomed U.S. enterprise in the Third World was in the '60s, when former Prime Minister Harold Wilson refused to commit British troops to Vietnam. He was right, of course, but it is still remarkable that current Prime Minister Tony Blair is showing such resistance to letting Britain get drawn into Washington's adventure in Colombia.
Blair has said nothing in public against "Plan Colombia" himself, but he has refused to buy into it, as have most of his European colleagues. And two weeks ago, he let a senior minister in his government openly condemn the U.S. plan.