To Hell With Sympathy: The goodwill America earned on 9/11 was illusory. Get over it

Time ^ | November 17, 2003 | Charles Krauthammer

[quidnunc]

No one likes us. And the democrats know why: the world loved us just two years ago, and then this President, cowboy arrogant and rudely unilateral, blew it. "When America was savagely attacked by al-Qaeda terrorists on 9-11, virtually all the world was with us," writes Democratic elder statesman Theodore Sorensen. "But that moment of universal goodwill was squandered." He writes that in the current issue of The American Prospect, but he is speaking for just about every Democratic candidate, potentate, deep thinker and critic, and not a few foreign commentators as well. The formulation is near universal: "The president has somehow squandered the international outpouring of sympathy, goodwill and solidarity that followed the attacks of Sept. 11" (Al Gore). "He has squandered the goodwill of the world after Sept. 11" (John Kerry).

The ur-text for this myth is the famous Le Monde editorial of Sept. 12, 2001, titled "We Are All Americans." But as Johns Hopkins professor Fouad Ajami points out, not only did that very editorial speak of America's paying for its cynicism, but also, within months, that same Le Monde publisher was back with a small book ("All Americans? The World After September 11, 2001" — note the question mark) filled with the usual belligerence toward and disapproval of America.

What happened in those intervening few months? Is not the core Democratic complaint that it was overreaching in Iraq that caused the world to turn against us? And yet barely had we buried our 9/11 dead — long before we entered Baghdad — when the French, and the rest of the world, decided that they were not really Americans after all and were back to vilifying American arrogance, unilateralism, hegemony and so on.

It is pure fiction that this pro-American sentiment was either squandered after Sept. 11 or lost under the Bush Administration. It never existed. Envy for America, resentment of our power, hatred of our success has been a staple for decades, but most particularly since victory in the cold war left us the only superpower.

[quidnunc]

Quote:

Sympathy is fine. But if we "squander" it when we go to war to avenge our dead and prevent the next crop of dead, then to hell with sympathy. The fact is that the world hates us for our wealth, our success, our power. They hate us into incoherence. The Europeans, Ajami astutely observes, disdain us for our excessive religiosity (manifest, they imagine, by evolution being expelled from schools while prayer is ushered back in) — while the Arab world despises us as purveyors of secularism. We cannot win for losing.

And the horse they rode in on!

[ConservativeMan55]

After reading this article I feel like I am back in High School like you know! I like want everyone to like me! You know what I mean like we've gotta be popular you know!

[veronica]

They love us when we take a hit, hate us when we fight back.

[Fee]

"Anyone can get sympathy. You must earn jealousy and envy," Arnold Schwarzeneggar.

[nuffsenuff]

Inevitably, a liberal will make this stupid comment, "we lost all the support we had from 9/11", and I always counter with, "If this support goes away this easily, it was never there to begin with"....

Stumps them every time.

Slowly but surely they are going to have to realize that countries ALWAYS act in their best interests. After 9/11 it was in their best interest to show sympathy. But its ALWAYS going to be a "show".

[veronica]

"It is better to be feared than loved, if you cannot be both."

[Ashamed Canadian]

No one likes us. And the democrats know why: the world loved us just two years ago, and then this President, cowboy arrogant and rudely unilateral, blew it.

Pathetic. What an absolutely pathetic spin. Typical Liberal yarn.

[princess leah]

Well, who the He@# wants France to sympathize with us anyway! Bunch of pussies!

[Chancellor Palpatine]

Sympathy is fine. But if we "squander" it when we go to war to avenge our dead and prevent the next crop of dead, then to hell with sympathy.

Amen.

[mountaineer]

I recommend visiting the blog MerdeInFrance daily to see the latest anti-U.S. garbage (the blogger's purpose is to point out the hypocrisy and stupidity of his government and the French media).

[Tijeras_Slim]

I can always find sympathy... it's in the dictionary between s#it and syphillis.

[expatguy]

Pity and support are two different words.

[wimpycat]

Considering the sort of debasing and dangerous social and political experiments that earn the respect and admiration of the Europeans and most of the rest of the civilized world, if they really did ever take a liking to us, I'd be very, very afraid.

In other words, if selling our souls and our sovereignty down the river is the price for "esteem" in the world, then to hell with them.

[gridlock]

Well, if the French sympathise with us, we can count on them to be our loyal allies and protectors when are backs are to the wall. Why, who wouldn't want to be able to count on the French to come riding to the rescue when the chips are down?

They can't even defend their own country.

Lafayette was a long, long, time ago. That debt was repaid with interest in 1945.

[Billthedrill]

Well, my first CPO told me "you want sympathy from me, boot? You can find 'sympathy' in the dictionary - it's right between 'sh*t' and 'syphilis.'"

Nations do not have friends. They have other nations with more or less congruent interests, and that is it.

[Ax]

Everybody loved us? Excuse me? If they "loved" us so, I wouldn't like to see what they'd have done if they hated us. If you "love" someone or somebody, you don't try to blow up their landmarks (WTC 2-93). If you "love" someone or somebody, you don't blow up their troops' barracks. If you "love" someone or somebody, you don't blow up their embassies. If you "love" someone or somebody you don't blow holes in the sides of their warships. If you "love" someone or somebody, you don't drive loaded airplanes into their buildings.

[ken5050]

What really pisses me off is why we don't reframe the debate....every time one of the Dem candidates talks about going to the Un, or to our "firend" in Europe...he should be asked, point-blank:

Which Europe?..the Europe that thinks that israel is the greates threat to world peace?...Which UN?..the UN that puts Syria on the Security Council, and Lybia on the Human Rights Commission?

[nosofar]

"Anyone can get sympathy. You must earn jealousy and envy," Arnold Schwarzeneggar.

That explains it. Sympathy is easier to get. (Especially if you have no pride.)

[jpl]

In the rough and tumble of geopolitics, I'd definitely rather be feared than loved.

[gridlock]

From Article:

The search for logic in anti-Americanism is fruitless. It is in the air the world breathes. Its roots are envy and self-loathing — by peoples who, yearning for modernity but having failed at it, find their one satisfaction in despising modernity's great exemplar.

On Sept. 11, they gave it a rest for a day. Big deal.

Sing it, Charles!