I sympathize with Nile Gardiner’s desire to see the Obama White House apologize for the anonymous State Department official who said that Britain was just like any other of the world’s 190 or so nations and shouldn’t expect special treatment. But the deeper issue is not the insult to the Brits or carelessness about extraordinary Anglo-American ties. It’s that the comment reflects a current of opinion in our own government that there’s nothing particularly special or admirable about America either. We, too, are just one of 190 countries. Among the transnational progressives that run State, and that more and more dominate our courts, we might as well be Sierra Leone — actually, I think Sierra Leone probably rates higher than the U.S. or the U.K in their esteem.