Mrs Thatcher about the weakness of European countries

In the spring of 1986 Margaret Thatcher received an urgent and secret request from the American president. Ronald Reagan asked her to let him use British air bases for an attact on the Libyan President Colonel Gaddafi. The Prime Minister agreed. France and other European allies had refused. It had the effect of cementing the anglo-american alliance. There's another point: What's the good of having bases if when you want to use them you're not allowed to by the home country? It made America realise that Britain was her real and true friend when they were hard up against it and wanted something and that no one else in Europe was. They're a weak lot some of them in Europe, you know. Weak, feeble.