As US and British aircraft carriers position themselves in the Persian Gulf for a possible air strike against Iraq within weeks, the once battered "special relationship" between the US and Britain is given being given new life.
This will be even more apparent next week when the British Prime Minister comes to Washington for his first visit since his election last May. The White House will roll out the red carpet and the three days will be a series of banquets, cosy chats, more formal meetings with officials in the background, and a getaway for the Clintons and the Blairs to the rural retreat of Camp David in the Appalachians.
It will be a dazzling encounter between two youngish leaders who have influenced each other's political philosophies - the New Democrats and New Labour.
The looming air strike on Iraq will bind the traditional allies together in a way not seen since the days of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher.
The US will supply most of the firepower if the airstrike comes, but Washington is grateful to have British support at a time when there is little sign of any other of the Gulf War coalition allies offering their forces.
The term "special relationship" is no longer in vogue. "We never use it," said a British diplomat here. "We prefer `unique partnership', as President Clinton said in London last year."
Whatever it is called, it hit the depths when President Clinton entered the White House in 1993 resentful of how the John Major Conservative government co-operated with the George Bush campaign to explore Clinton's anti-Vietnam War posture while he was in Britain as a Rhodes scholar in 1968-69.
The new US administration saw little merit in the traditional special relationship and cultivated Germany and Chancellor Helmut Kohl as the significant European figure. Britain's dithering over European integration also diminished its clout in American eyes.
There were also strains over Bosnia. This time it was the US which dithered, angering London when it opted out of the arms embargo without proper consultation with European countries which had troops there.
But it was on Northern Ireland that the biggest rift opened, as Clinton began to fulfil an election promise to Irish-Americans to play a more active role to secure peace.
This culminated in the President overriding most official advice and strong representations from London to grant Sinn Fein's Gerry Adams a visa while the IRA was still bombing British cities.
Even after the IRA ceasefire, there was further gnashing of teeth in Downing St when Clinton approved a second visa which would allow Adams to fundraise in the US. John Major was reported to have refused to take soothing phone calls from the White House for several days.
But now, all has changed. Clinton has a virtual soulmate in Blair. Their wives are both highly intelligent lawyers with much in common. They are all the babyboomer generation.
Clinton and Blair have discussed Northern Ireland in detail at meetings in London, Denver and Paris in the past six months. They also speak about it on the telephone as they did this week when they also conferred on the growing Iraqi crisis.
The announcement of the new inquiry into Bloody Sunday was welcomed by the White House. The White House press secretary, Mike McCurry, used the occasion to tell the world's press assembled for the latest on Monicagate that "President Clinton has a great deal of admiration for the political courage of Prime Minister Blair". His decision on the new inquiry was "no doubt difficult to do and speaks to his devotion to the peace process".
What a turnaround. Now Northern Ireland's problems are bringing Washington and London closer together rather than separating them. One wonders if the Irish-American lobby and even Dublin has grasped the significance of this sea-change.
