Who Hates America?

“If Barack Obama is elected president, I daresay America will present a new face to the world, will restore, simply by his election, hope – not just within the United States, but from all corners of the world, that America’s claim to moral authority is back on track and that our leadership in world affairs will see a renaissance.”

So said U.S. Representative William Delahunt (D-MA) at a recent campaign event in which the leading Democratic foreign policy voice endorsed for president a candidate who admits: “the strongest experience I have in foreign relations is the fact I spent four years overseas when I was a child in Southeast Asia." Well.

His gratuitousness aside, Delahunt’s statement echoed the conventional wisdom about the most urgent task awaiting the next president: to repair America’s sullied image abroad. But take a closer look at the evidence, and a different reality emerges.

The idea that America’s reputation is in a state of disrepair was put forward in a Washington Post op-ed this week by Clinton Secretary of State Madeline Albright. She wrote that President Bush has embraced a “culture of fear that has driven and narrowed our foreign policy while poisoning our ability to communicate effectively with others.”

But such fierce criticism of the White House’s foreign policy isn’t limited to knee-jerk liberals. Moises Naim, editor-in-chief of Foreign Affairs magazine, claims “The world wants America back” and suggests the “powerful anti-American sentiments around the globe” are the result of a White House whose foreign policy has been defined by “more power than brains and whose legitimacy is undermined by regular displays of incompetence, recklessness and ignorance.”

Even Republican presidential candidates -- including Mike Huckabee, who chided the Bush Administration for what he called an “arrogant, bunker mentality” -- have parroted the leftwing line that our nation has been tarnished for its “ugly American” image abroad.

The list of America’s alleged transgressions is as varied as it is well known. It includes: Bush’s “cowboy diplomacy” and the resultant “illegal” war in Iraq, abuse of prisoners at Gitmo, failure to sign on to the Kyoto protocol and, of course, the administration’s support for Israel.

But while it is true that in some parts of the world the U.S. and the Bush administration are unpopular, by one standard, at least, the U.S. is doing as well as it ever has. The governments of the world are shifting decidedly in our direction.

Consider Europe, where anti-American sentiment is supposed to run as high as it’s ever been. In Great Britain, Prime Minister Gordon Brown has made strengthening transatlantic ties a top priority, and Labour Party insiders insist Brown is more pro-America than pro-Europe. Brown may be pulling British soldiers out of Iraq, but he also wants to maintain the “special relationship” with the U.S. Brown even vacations in Cape Cod.

What about “Old Europe”? In France, Nicolas Sarkozy (“Sarko the American”) calls America the world’s “greatest democracy” and recently appointed a pro-American foreign minister. In Germany, meanwhile, Chancellor Angela Merkel ascended to power in 2004 pledging to reinvigorate trans-Atlantic cooperation with the United States and said shortly after taking office that Germany “does not have as many values in common with Russia as it does with America.”

How pro-America is Europe? A recent survey of members of the European parliament found that seventy-seven answered ‘yes’ when asked whether or not it was desirable that the U.S. exert strong leadership in world affairs. Such a shift in sentiment forced even the New York Times to admit: “So old Europe has warmed toward the United States.”

New Europe -- Central and Eastern Europe -- has traditionally been very supportive of the nation that played a crucial role in bringing down the Soviet regime that dominated them for so long. Poland, Romania, Hungary and the Czech Republic all support the war in Iraq and have provided troops and assistance there.

In Albania, a recent six-hour visit by President Bush prompted the parliament to unanimously approve a bill allowing “American forces to engage in any kind of operation, including the use of force, in order to provide security for the president.” President Bush and America are so popular in the predominantly Muslim nation that one newspaper published a headline that read: “Please Occupy Us!”

Georgia has been a close American ally, contributing 2,000 troops to Iraq, the third largest contributor, after the U.S. and Great Britain. The popular Georgian government even named a street after George W. Bush. Can you feel the love?

Such appreciation for America doesn’t end in Europe. America’s relations with Australia, Canada and Japan are very strong. And a 2005 Pew survey found that 71 percent of Indians had a favorable view of America, and a majority had either some or a lot of confidence in President Bush’s ability to conduct world affairs.

And while the anti-American governments in Venezuela and Bolivia get all the headlines, they are outliers in Latin America. Brazil, Chile, Peru, Uruguay and Mexico all have strengthened their relationships with the U.S. since President Bush took office.

And in no continent is America more beloved than Africa. President Bush has given the continent the most sustained attention of any president in recent memory, condemning genocide in Sudan (and recently signing ground-breaking legislation allowing state and local governments to divest from companies that do business with Sudan) and sending aid to war-ravaged Liberia. The Bush Administration has allocated $15 billion to fighting HIV and AIDS in Africa and $1.2 billion to prevent the spread of malaria.

Even in the Middle East, where anti-American sentiment remains strongest, President Bush has re-engaged with countries like Libya, which ceased its search for WMD with Bush’s urging.

None of this is to say that America does not have enemies. (Name one historical superpower that did not.) There will always be First World elites who look down their noses at America’s unrivaled abundance and prosperity, and there will always be Third World dictators who find in America a convenient scapegoat for their nations’ instability and underdevelopment.

The fact is, however, that no other nation in history has been as benevolent or charitable as the United States. Many in the world insult us, but when crisis comes, it is to the United States that the world turns for assistance. So, while the United States may not always be loved, most of the world recognizes that we are indispensable.

It’s important not to get caught up in campaign hype. And it’s time to recognize that, in many important ways, the United States is well received in the world because we promote a foreign policy that keeps us, and thus the world, strong.

Would anyone by shocked if I admitted right here, right now, I don't give a flying monkeys rear end what the rest of the world thinks about the USA

You can put me down right next to you in that line of thinking.

“If Barack Obama is elected president, I daresay America will present a new face to the world, will restore, simply by his election, hope – not just within the United States, but from all corners of the world, that America’s claim to moral authority is back on track and that our leadership in world affairs will see a renaissance.”

"(1960s) If we support the liberal agenda and give social benefits to African Americans then they will be happier and can use the money to enter mainstream America. Certainly this will happen by the 1980s and our moral authority will be back on track around the world. Then we can give money directly to other poor people around the world and then there will be world peace by the turn of the century in a beautiful connected egalitarian world".

(2008) If it's very easy and looks to good to be true then chances are it's very difficult and is a bit ugly.

Albright is a foreigner, with a foreigner’s sensibility. In the 2004 campaign, she speculated out loud that the “Bush Administration” had already captured Bin Laden and was holding him to spring on the eve of the election. Such conspiracy theory nonsense comes directly from Albright’s central European background. She was a total failure as Secretary of State, unable to convince the “international community” to continue the sanctions regime against Saddam Hussein. The sanctions were falling apart as the Clinton Administration left office,despite Albright’s claim that Hussein had WMD—YES SHE ARGUED THAT HE HAD THEM. When Bush said the same thing a year later, this despicable foreign tub of lard called him a liar. Anything she says need to be discounted out of hand.

I don’t know if I can see them repeating 9/11.

Why should they bother?

We are destroying ourselves from within.

I believe there are already enough enemies working on the inside of our own government to seriously advance the Islamic agenda.

Consider this: Obama, who(let’s pretend now)USED to be a practicing muslim, became westernized to the extent that he is a serious contender for president.

My point is..... Are any muslims complaining about this and crying out for his death?

Not that I know of.

They bit*h about every little thing. Not a word on this.

That tells me a lot.

My link above is wrong.

The Red Rose is a communist symbol.

http://www.dsausa.org/dsa.html

Is the correct link.

Some of the DSA are not members of the Progressive caucus, but all of the progressive caucus are DSA.

The DSA hides their membership.

Funny thing about Irish districts in Mass.

They will spit and curse at mention of the word communist, then fall all over themselves to get a handshake from Ted Kennedy, who is also a member of the Red Rose.
Delahunt is the same as Teddy.

Ping to #46

I sometimes wonder if 9/11 was, to use poker terminology, a type of feeler bet, to determine the strength or lack of our nationalism.

Sure, we took the war over there to hunt for terrorists, as a pre-emptive strike, to nullify any safe base of operations for terrorists-whatever.

But we did not take the necessary steps over here to ensure our safety. Seven years later, the border is still wide open. To show how tolerant we are, we concede to their cultural demands, installing foot baths all over the place and conducting state business after being led in prayer by muslim representatives(who were elected by our own citizens)clutching a Koran.

That’s a bad play.

They know how weak we are. We are caving in right and left to their cultural demands.

Strength has to be shown here, as well as abroad, or the WOT is just a lie.

Your dsusa link is wrong, it takes you to a sports page of some kind.

I am very familiar with the DSU and have list of their members but the progressive caucus is something different and not nearly as damning. It is no secret the left are “progressives” because they call themselves that rather then liberals, whose label they despise.

However, I can find no link on the Red Rose page that indicates anyone from the Dem Party as members.

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