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Does Charles` visit really matter?

With the visit to the United States this week of the Prince of Wales, Charles, and his relatively new wife Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, a new generation of Americans were exposed to the visit of a British royal couple, though without a doubt their parents have warmer memories, if they care at all, about the visit of Prince Charles and Princess Diana, twenty years ago now. The purpose of the visit is not really political, instead it is hoped that Charles? image in the U.S., where love of the late Diana is almost a given, will improve along with the lot of Camilla, whom he wed earlier this year. How have American-British relations evolved in the years since the visit of Charles and Diana in 1985? More importantly, how have the countries evolved? How has the world changed? Twenty years ago, the royal couple was perceived to be a happily married bunch ? though there were problems, much of the public did not know of or pay that much attention to them. Ronald Reagan was the President, the current President?s father was the Vice President, and John Travolta danced with the Princess of Wales at the White House, something she very much wanted to do. Then, it seemed Americans were enamored of British royalty, though they were quite happy they didn?t have a royal family to deal with themselves. There was still a World Trade Center, Iraq was still ruled by Saddam Hussein, and Osama bin Laden was a virtual unknown. Afghanistan was still reeling from the effects of the Soviet invasion years earlier, the Israelis were in southern Lebanon and there was no European single currency. So the question arises, does the visit of Charles and Camilla to the U.S. this year mean as much as it did back then? In the scheme of things, this weeks royal visit served the purpose of showing Americans that Prince Charles is still out there, and that relations between the United States of America and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland are, from all appearances, as warm as they have ever been.