Posted on 02/10/2005 2:17:21 PM PST by quidnunc
With the impending inauguration of President George W. Bush many pro-American Frenchmen and Englishmen are bracing themselves for yet another round of anti-American sentiments expressed by their countries’ left-wing elites. Out of all the nations that make up the European Union it is Britain and France that harbor the most virulent of critics who believe the United States is, once more, steering a unilateralist path to Armageddon.
Although Tony Blair remains a popular Prime Minister there is a substantial minority in his party, mainly grassroots activists, who distrust and dislike him for his pro-American positions and his moderate Labour policies. Many resent the way in which his political life is heavily influenced by his Christian faith.
This small, but effective group of opinion-makers from the worlds of politics, entertainment, academia, the arts and the media (aided by their counterparts within the United States, eager to show the world Americans are not the xenophobic hyper-patriots they are portrayed in Europe) have reduced America to a nineteenth-century cartoon-like status - a monolith grasping at world dominance and empire. Few give a balanced opinion. Nearly all of the critics excuse the 9/11 attacks by implying the United States brought about the situation by its failure to give the Arab world its due respect.
During anti-war demonstrations in Britain left-wing marchers have unashamedly waved banners defending known terrorists, shouted abuse at American tourists and British pro-American supporters and described George Bush in terms usually reserved for serial killers. Banners decrying the attacks of 9/11 were nowhere to be seen. When Daniel Pearl was murdered there was no outcry from the left in Britain. Instead, leftist and liberal commentators concentrated their critical faculties on the treatment of Al Qaeda and Taliban prisoners at Gauntanamo.
Anti-Americanism in Europe is not a new phenomenon, although the present strain is more venomous in character and is embraced by the far left and far right equally. And it is a myth that the new resurgence of anti-Americanism began when George Bush invaded Iraq. It originated shortly after America was attacked by Al Qaeda terrorists. Following a "honeymoon period" when the world grieved with every American, opinion-makers in Britain and France decided that America should accept some blame for the tragedy.
Many Britons in the 1960s blamed the United States for risking a nuclear holocaust. During the Vietnam War many students used the anti-war marches to propagate Mao-style communism whose vocabulary was not far removed from that of present-day Iran in calling the United States the greatest evil in the world. Anti-Americanism has always been vicious and irrational but today it is masquerading as legitimate political discourse, quickly becoming the global ideology of the age.
-snip-
Most of Europe, even France and Germany is not anti-American.
But they violently anti-single-superpover.
And here is the conflict comes. If the superpower keep telling them who they should do business with, then the balance wil tip against the superpower however big sentiments they have for the American way of life, the movies, songs Coca-Cola and so on....
This is more about dignity than politics.
Then there is a fear factor too...
Logically, what would stop the US doing whatever it wants regardless who is its ally, or friends?
So that's why the europeans prefer a multipolar world.
Not a suprise, the chair did not even cooled out after Condi Rice left Brussels, the EU signalled that they are ready to lift the arms embargo on China...
"During anti-war demonstrations in Britain left-wing marchers have unashamedly waved banners defending known terrorists ...."
... while the remaining 59.4 million other Brits quietly got on with living their lives.
It would be difficult to overstate the damage that has been done to the image of America overseas by just one entity: CNN International. Whenever I hear someone outside the US make a statement about us which they think is factual but which I know to be either false or a gross distortion, I ask them what they use as their main source of information about what is going on in America. Invariably, they cite CNN.
Many folks in Europe honestly believed that Bill Clinton was one of the most poplar presidents in our history (never elected with more than 49 % of any vote and one of only two to be impeached), the rate of violent crime in America is at an all time high (actually lower than twenty years ago, and on a per capita basis lower than in Britain), or that GWB had no possible chance to be reelected (when I was asked during the past year who I thought would win the election and would answer simply "Bush" people were genuinely astonished).
It was not always like this and I personally peg the change to the spread of CNN since the mid to late 1980's.
So Iraq was everyone's problem. Not just the USA's.
"Parting is such sweet sorrow," as heaven-born playwright has famously expounded.
Noooooooooooooo!
I'd just managed to haggle a price for cheap baked beans!
Baked beans? Is that what Mrs Slipperduke really believes?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.