Consequences

[Annie]

I've always liked that word:

http://victorhanson.com/articles/hanson051906.html

May 19, 2006
Anti-Anti-Americanism
Dealing with the crazy world after Iraq.
by Victor Davis Hanson
National Review Online

How does the United States deal with a corrupt world in which we are blamed even for the good we do, while others are praised when they do wrong or remain indifferent to suffering?

We are accused of unilateral and preemptory bullying of the madman Mr. Ahmadinejad, whose reactors that will be used to “wipe out” the “one-bomb” state of Israel were supplied by Swiss, German, and Russian profit-minded businessmen. No one thinks to chastise those who sold Iran the capability of destroying Israel.

Here in the United States we worry whether we are tough enough with the Gulf sheikdoms in promoting human rights and democratic reform. Meanwhile China simply offers them cash for oil, no questions asked. Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez pose as anti-Western zealots to Western naifs. The one has never held an election; the other tries his best to end the democracy that brought him to power. Meanwhile our fretting elites, back from Europe or South America, write ever more books on why George Bush and the Americans are not liked.

Hamas screams that we are mean for our logical suggestion that free American taxpayers will not subsidize such killers and terrorists. Those in the Middle East whine about Islamophobia, but keep silent that there is not allowed a Sunni mosque in Iran or a Christian church in Saudi Arabia. An entire book could be written about the imams and theocrats — in Iran, Egypt, the West Bank, Pakistan, and the Gulf States — who in safety issue fatwas and death pronouncements against Americans in Iraq and any who deal with the “infidel,” and yet send their spoiled children to private schools in Britain and the United States, paid for by their own blackmail money from corrupt governments.

You get the overall roundup: the Europeans have simply absorbed as their own the key elements of ossified French foreign policy — utopian rhetoric and anti-Americanism can pretty much give you a global pass to sell anything you wish to anyone at anytime.

China is more savvy. It discards every disastrous economic policy Mao ever enacted, but keeps two cornerstones of Maoist dogma: imply force to bully, and keep the veneer of revolutionary egalitarianism to mask cutthroat capitalism and diplomacy, from copyright theft and intellectual piracy to smiling at rogue clients like North Korea and disputing the territorial claims of almost every neighbor in sight.

Oil cuts a lot of idealism in the Middle East. The cynicism is summed up simply as “Those who sell lecture, and those who buy listen.” American efforts in Iraq — the largest aid program since the Marshall Plan, where American blood and treasure go to birth democracy — are libeled as “no blood for oil.” Yet a profiteering Saudi Arabia or Kuwait does more to impoverish poor oil-importing African and Asian nations than any regime on earth. But this sick, corrupt world keeps mum.

And why not ask Saudi Arabia about its now lionized and well-off al-Ghamdi clan? Aside from the various Ghamdi terrorists and bin-Laden hangers-on, remember young Ahmad, the 20-year-old medical student who packed his suicide vest with ball bearings and headed for Mosul, where he blew up 18 Americans? Or how about dear Ahmad and Hamza, the Ghamdis who helped crash Flight 175 into the South Tower on September 11? And please do not forget either the Saudi icon Said Ghamdi, who, had he not met Todd Beamer and Co. on Flight 93, would have incinerated the White House or the Capitol.

So we know the symptoms of this one-sided anti-Americanism and its strange combination of hatred, envy, and yearning — but, so far, not its remedy. In the meantime, the global caricature of the United States, in the aftermath of Iraq, is proving near fatal to the Bush administration, whose idealism and sharp break with past cynical realpolitik have earned it outright disdain. Indeed, the more al Qaeda is scattered, and the more Iraq looks like it will eventually emerge as a constitutional government, the angrier the world seems to become at the United States. American success, it seems, is even worse than failure.

Some of the criticism is inevitable. America is in an unpopular reconstruction of Iraq that has cost lives and treasure. Observers looked only at the explosions, never what the sacrifice was for — especially when it is rare for an Afghan or Iraqi ever to visit the United States to express thanks for giving their peoples a reprieve from the Taliban and Saddam Hussein.

We should also accept that the United States, as the world’s policeman, always suffers the easy hatred of the cops, who are as ankle-bitten when things are calm as they are desperately sought when danger looms. America is the genitor and largest donor to the United Nations. Its military is the ultimate guarantor of free commerce by land and sea, and its wide-open market proves the catalyst of international trade. More immigrants seek its shores than all other designations combined — especially from countries of Latin America, whose criticism of the United States is the loudest.

Nevertheless, while we cannot stop anti-Americanism, here (a consequence, in part, of a deep-seeded, irrational sense of inferiority) and abroad, we can adopt a wiser stance that puts the onus of responsibility more on our critics.

We have a window of 1 to 3 years in Iran before it deploys nuclear weapons. Let Ahmadinejad talk and write — the loonier and longer, the better, as we smile and ignore him and his monstrous ilk.

Let also the Europeans and Arabs come to us to ask our help, as sphinx-like we express “concern” for their security needs. Meanwhile we should continue to try to appeal to Iranian dissidents, stabilize Iraq and Afghanistan, and resolve that at the eleventh hour this nut with his head in a well will not obtain the methods to destroy what we once knew as the West.

Ditto with Hamas. Don’t demonize it — just don’t give it any money. Praise democracy, but not what was elected.

We should curtail money to Mr. Mubarak as well. No need for any more sermons on democracy — been there, done that. Now we should accept with quiet resignation that if an aggregate $50 billion in give-aways have earned us the most anti-American voices in the Middle East, then a big fat zero for Egypt might be an improvement. After all, there must be something wrong with a country that gave us both Mohammad Atta and Dr. Zawahiri.

The international Left loves to champion humanitarian causes that do not involve the immediate security needs of the United States, damning us for inaction even as they are the first to slander us for being military interventionists. We know the script of Haiti, Mogadishu, and the Balkans, where Americans are invited in, and then harped at both for using and not using force. Where successful, the credit goes elsewhere; failure is always ours alone. Still, we should organize multinational efforts to save those in Darfur — but only after privately insisting that every American soldier must be matched by a European, Chinese, and Russian peacekeeper.

There are other ways to curb our exposure to irrational hatred that seems so to demoralize the American public. First, we should cease our Olympian indifference to hypocrisy, instead pointing out politely inconsistencies in European, Middle Eastern, and Chinese morality. Why not express more concern about the inexplicable death of Balkan kingpin prisoners at The Hague or European sales of nuclear technology to madmen or institutionalized Chinese theft of intellectual property?

We need to reexamine the nature of our overseas American bases, elevating the political to the strategic, which, it turns out, are inseparable after all. To take one small example: When Greeks pour out on their streets to rage at a visiting American secretary of State, we should ask ourselves, do we really need a base in Crete that is so costly in rent and yet ensures Greeks security without responsibility or maturity? Surely once we leave, those brave opportunistic souls in the streets of Athens can talk peace with the newly Islamist Turkish government, solve Cyprus on their own, or fend off terrorists from across the Mediterranean.

The point is not to be gratuitously punitive or devolve into isolationism, but to continue to apply to Europe the model that was so successful in the Philippines and now South Korea — ongoing redeployment of Americans to where we can still strike in emergencies, but without empowering hypocritical hosts in time of peace.

We must also sound in international fora as friendly and cooperative as possible with the Russians, Chinese, and the lunatic Latin American populists — even as we firm up our contingency plans and strengthen military ties of convenience with concerned states like Australia, Japan, India, and Brazil.

The United States must control our borders, for reasons that transcend even terrorism and national security. One way to cool the populist hatred emanating from Latin America is to ensure that it becomes a privilege, not a birthright, to enter the United States. In traveling the Middle East, I notice the greatest private complaint is not Israel or even Iraq, but the inability to enter the United States as freely as in the past. And that, oddly, is not necessarily a bad thing, as those who damn us are slowly learning that their cheap hatred has had real consequences.

Then there is, of course, oil. It is the great distorter, one that punishes the hard-working poor states who need fuel to power their reforming economies while rewarding failed regimes for their mischief, by the simple accident that someone else discovered it, developed it, and then must purchase it from under their dictatorial feet. We must drill, conserve, invent, and substitute our way out of this crisis to ensure the integrity of our foreign policy, to stop the subsidy of crazies like Chavez and Ahmadinejad, and to lower the world price of petroleum that taxes those who can least afford it. There is a reason, after all, why the al-Ghamdis are popular icons in Saudi Arabia rather than on the receiving end of a cruise missile.

So we need more firm explanation, less loud assertion, more quiet with our enemies, more lectures to neutrals and friends — and always the very subtle message that cheap anti-Americanism will eventually have consequences.

 

[Bullypulpit]

Seems to me that the author has the emphasis reversed. Given that the BUsh administration squandered every last bit of the good-will towards America after 9-11 in his pursuit of a war of choice based on sexed-up and manufactured intel. The estblishment of the prison in GITMO and secret prisons elsewhere, where US treaty obligations and federal laws regarding the treatment of prisoners may be conveniently ignored. The gutting of the Constitution justified by the 'war on terrorism' and the domestic spying program which it spawned. THe failure to secure our own ports and borders. The failure to nuclear and cheimical facilities. The general disregard shown the American people by the utter failure of the Bush Administration to prepare for natural disasters. The abandonment of fiscal sanity as evidenced by the burgeoning federal deficits, where much of the debt is held by nations which might not have America's best intersts at heart...like China.

All of these have very real consequences and are the result of a corrupt and venal administration more interested in expanding the personal fortunes of its members than of serving the people who elected them.

 

[Avatar4321]

Seems to me that the author has the emphasis reversed. Given that the BUsh administration squandered every last bit of the good-will towards America after 9-11 in his pursuit of a war of choice based on sexed-up and manufactured intel. The estblishment of the prison in GITMO and secret prisons elsewhere, where US treaty obligations and federal laws regarding the treatment of prisoners may be conveniently ignored. The gutting of the Constitution justified by the 'war on terrorism' and the domestic spying program which it spawned. THe failure to secure our own ports and borders. The failure to nuclear and cheimical facilities. The general disregard shown the American people by the utter failure of the Bush Administration to prepare for natural disasters. The abandonment of fiscal sanity as evidenced by the burgeoning federal deficits, where much of the debt is held by nations which might not have America's best intersts at heart...like China.

All of these have very real consequences and are the result of a corrupt and venal administration more interested in expanding the personal fortunes of its members than of serving the people who elected them.

Bully, Stop acting as though you had any good will toward the President in the first place. You guys have been attacking him since he won in 2000. and he did win in 2000 despite your sides attempts to cheat. I thought maybe something would change after 911. Unfortunately you guys were playing the same exact game less than a week later.

Do you want to know why the rest of the world has no good will towards us? its because we have people like you in our own country badmouthing us to the rest of the world despite every good thing we do.

 

[Abbey Normal]

Bully, Stop acting as though you had any good will toward the President in the first place. You guys have been attacking him since he won in 2000. and he did win in 2000 despite your sides attempts to cheat. I thought maybe something would change after 911. Unfortunately you guys were playing the same exact game less than a week later.

Do you want to know why the rest of the world has no good will towards us? its because we have people like you in our own country badmouthing us to the rest of the world despite every good thing we do.

I wish I could rep you again!

 

[sitarro]

Bully, Stop acting as though you had any good will toward the President in the first place. You guys have been attacking him since he won in 2000. and he did win in 2000 despite your sides attempts to cheat. I thought maybe something would change after 911. Unfortunately you guys were playing the same exact game less than a week later.

Do you want to know why the rest of the world has no good will towards us? its because we have people like you in our own country badmouthing us to the rest of the world despite every good thing we do.

Thanks Avatar for expressing exactly what I wanted to say to this clown. I am amazed at the lack of coherent thought everytime I read his posts.

It has to be tough living in a country you hate so much Bull-pull-it. I can't believe you are still repeating the lies about Katrina....wait a minute, yes I can believe it. You are like the rest of the America haters on DU, you misinterpret the simplist statements, lie repeatedly, act ignorant to the facts no matter how well documented. Why don't you just get the hell out and take the rest of your kind with you, I'm sure Hugo would gladly take you in.

Kathianne, once again you have found an author that states the truth in such an incredibly well thought out way....DAMN THAT WAS GOOD.....Thank you. A virtual rep to you lady since I have to spread it around before I can actually give you a real one.

 

[Annie]

Thanks Avatar for expressing exactly what I wanted to say to this clown. I am amazed at the lack of coherent thought everytime I read his posts.

It has to be tough living in a country you hate so much Bull-pull-it. I can't believe you are still repeating the lies about Katrina....wait a minute, yes I can believe it. You are like the rest of the America haters on DU, you misinterpret the simplist statements, lie repeatedly, act ignorant to the facts no matter how well documented. Why don't you just get the hell out and take the rest of your kind with you, I'm sure Hugo would gladly take you in.

Kathianne, once again you have found an author that states the truth in such an incredibly well thought out way....DAMN THAT WAS GOOD.....Thank you. A virtual rep to you lady since I have to spread it around before I can actually give you a real one.

 

[Diuretic]

Thanks Avatar for expressing exactly what I wanted to say to this clown. I am amazed at the lack of coherent thought everytime I read his posts.

It has to be tough living in a country you hate so much Bull-pull-it. I can't believe you are still repeating the lies about Katrina....wait a minute, yes I can believe it. You are like the rest of the America haters on DU, you misinterpret the simplist statements, lie repeatedly, act ignorant to the facts no matter how well documented. Why don't you just get the hell out and take the rest of your kind with you, I'm sure Hugo would gladly take you in.

<snipped>

How can you draw the conclusion that BP hates America? Is criticism of the Bush Administration tantamount to hating America? Is it? I'm interested to know the answer.

 

[sitarro]

How can you draw the conclusion that BP hates America? Is criticism of the Bush Administration tantamount to hating America? Is it? I'm interested to know the answer.

I have been reading his Bullshit long enough to come to that conclusion "mate". And that idiot line that all of you clowns parrot about criticizing the Bush Administration is kind of a joke since most of Bush's biggest supporters have been doing a very heavy dose of criticizing of numerous things this administration has done lately.

What do you care anyway, your on the other side of the globe and have plenty of problems in your own country. I just watched "Little Fish" last night and it seems that Heroin is quite popular there. Yea I know, it's just a movie, but then again that is how most of the rest of the world judges the United States isn't it?

 

[jillian]

I have been reading his Bullshit long enough to come to that conclusion "mate". And that idiot line that all of you clowns parrot about criticizing the Bush Administration is kind of a joke since most of Bush's biggest supporters have been doing a very heavy dose of criticizing of numerous things this administration has done lately.

What do you care anyway, your on the other side of the globe and have plenty of problems in your own country. I just watched "Little Fish" last night and it seems that Heroin is quite popular there. Yea I know, it's just a movie, but then again that is how most of the rest of the world judges the United States isn't it?

Maybe if decisions made in this country didn't affect his part of the world he wouldn't care.

 

[Diuretic]

I have been reading his Bullshit long enough to come to that conclusion "mate". And that idiot line that all of you clowns parrot about criticizing the Bush Administration is kind of a joke since most of Bush's biggest supporters have been doing a very heavy dose of criticizing of numerous things this administration has done lately.

What do you care anyway, your on the other side of the globe and have plenty of problems in your own country. I just watched "Little Fish" last night and it seems that Heroin is quite popular there. Yea I know, it's just a movie, but then again that is how most of the rest of the world judges the United States isn't it?

Prickly! Simple question not answered. Never mind, of itself that's an answer. If you feel like actually addressing it it could be interesting.

"Little Fish" - haven't seen it. From what I've read about it it's a pretty accurate portrayal of a suburb of Sydney called Cabramatta which has a big heroin problem and of course a big crime problem associated with heroin. Huge social problem there.

Now stop being so bloody defensive. No-one's criticising the United States, just your government's various policies. I try to refrain from commenting on purely domestic issues (eg immigration) not because I'm not interested (I am) but because on a purely domestic policy I think it's a bit cheeky for someone not living there to chip in with a view - just my own view. But when it comes to commenting on policies that affect the rest of the world (that's the big bit outside the US) I feel free to do so and I will do so. Get used to it, there's more coming.

So, mate, if you feel the need to criticise my country then feel free to do so. I may agree with you, I may disagree with you, but I won't bounce you for doing so.

 

[Bullypulpit]

Bully, Stop acting as though you had any good will toward the President in the first place. You guys have been attacking him since he won in 2000. and he did win in 2000 despite your sides attempts to cheat. I thought maybe something would change after 911. Unfortunately you guys were playing the same exact game less than a week later.

Do you want to know why the rest of the world has no good will towards us? its because we have people like you in our own country badmouthing us to the rest of the world despite every good thing we do.

Yes...Yes...Yes...I've heard that tired old spew since September 12, 2001. Question the POTUS and you're un-American. That is such utter bullshit. I laid out some of the reasons which turned world opinion against the Bush Administration and America. But you are not even willing to consider them.

Could it be that I, and others who share my opinions, might love America as much as any rabid supporter of Bush? That doesn't occur to you either, does it?

Are you really so afraid of the world at large that you would willingly throw away the vision of the Founding Fathers, as laid down in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, for some illusory sense of security?

Your unquestioning support for this President and his administration is such that he could strangle a girl scout on the White House lawn, and you would likely just stand there as say, "She deserved it...". Dissent is the highest form of patriotism, and the servile acquiesence to any act of the POTUS you seem to advocate is unpatriotic and morally bankrupt.

 

[sitarro]

most of Bush's biggest supporters have been doing a very heavy dose of criticizing of numerous things this administration has done lately.

So this didn't answer your question? I don't give a crap if someone wants to criticize the Bush Administration on truthful, valid points but when absolutely ignorant garbage is made up and used as criticism I have a problem with that.

Iraq had WMDs, that is a fact that has been proven over and over again. To say that Bush lied about the existence of them is a lie. Iraq needed to be dealt with, that is also a fact, just because the UN and a few insignificant countries who were being paid by Saddam disagreed doesn't make the action wrong. Saddam had broken the agreements he made in 91 numerous times including firing upon our aircraft and attempting to assassinate a former President of the United States, that in itself was enough to take this enemy of the world out. Our interest in the area and our friends were threatened, more reason to take him out.

The federal government was not to blame for the idiocy of my home state in the lack of reaction to the needs in New Orleans. President Bush warned that joke of a Governor and Mayor of what was coming, they chose to pretend that they could handle the disaster that has been coming since before I was born. To blame the federal government when the reaction time was actually the fastest in history to a natural disaster is nothing but pure partisan bullshit.

What's the point, one has to be blind and naive to not see what the United States has done for the rest of the world. Reread the editorial.

 

[Diuretic]

I'm really happy to discuss facts. I am also happy to discuss opinions. But when opinions are dressed up as facts it takes the enjoyment out of discourse. I find no pleasure in just quarrelling.

 

[Avatar4321]

Yes...Yes...Yes...I've heard that tired old spew since September 12, 2001. Question the POTUS and you're un-American. That is such utter bullshit. I laid out some of the reasons which turned world opinion against the Bush Administration and America. But you are not even willing to consider them.

Could it be that I, and others who share my opinions, might love America as much as any rabid supporter of Bush? That doesn't occur to you either, does it?

Are you really so afraid of the world at large that you would willingly throw away the vision of the Founding Fathers, as laid down in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, for some illusory sense of security?

Your unquestioning support for this President and his administration is such that he could strangle a girl scout on the White House lawn, and you would likely just stand there as say, "She deserved it...". Dissent is the highest form of patriotism, and the servile acquiesence to any act of the POTUS you seem to advocate is unpatriotic and morally bankrupt.

Its not the questioning of the President that is getting you labeled unamerican. Its freaking opposing everything this nation stands for. It's youre continual desire to see President Bush fail, even if it means this nation fails with it. Its your continual badmouthing of everything this nation does.

And if you think everyone on this board supports everything the President does your a freaking illiterate, because we speak out against dumb moves too. We just arent about to go undermine our military when they are out defending us.

Like I said its pieces of crap like you who care more about getting your political power back then the survival of this nation. It must suck to know that whats bad for america is good for you.

And if you care so damn much about what the Founding Fathers wants for this nation. youd be fighting to get the full executive power restored to the President instead of the watered down power he has been left. Congress and the Courts have robbed past Presidents, this President, and Future Presidents. If you care at all about the Constitutional youll fight to give the President back His full power so He can execute His Constitutional duties, such as saving your sorry ass.

 

[Diuretic]

I remember being in the States a few times when Bill Clinton was in the White House.

I listened to Limbaugh, I listened to that nutter Liddy with his reports from "Occupied Washington DC" and his advice on aiming for the head of federal agents because they had ballistic vests.

I listened to undermining of the President, the smears against the First Lady, the rumour-mongering, the allegations of lesbianism.

Was all that un-American or was it okay because it was a Democratic Party President in the White House?

 

[Stephanie]

I remember being in the States a few times when Bill Clinton was in the White House.

I listened to Limbaugh, I listened to that nutter Liddy with his reports from "Occupied Washington DC" and his advice on aiming for the head of federal agents because they had ballistic vests.

I listened to undermining of the President, the smears against the First Lady, the rumour-mongering, the allegations of lesbianism.

Was all that un-American or was it okay because it was a Democratic Party President in the White House?

Shhheeesssshhhh!

 

[Diuretic]

Can't be lame - it has legs to stand on

And if we're talking about legs - how about a reBUTTal?

 

[Stephanie]

Can't be lame - it has legs to stand on

And if we're talking about legs - how about a reBUTTal?

RE :moon4:
AND

 

[Diuretic]

Hieroglyphics?

K - this is fun.




Just don't have a

If I :spank3: you

In future

:read: :

It may be or it may be but it's more fun if you at me but it's okay if you too

 

[Stephanie]

Its not the questioning of the President that is getting you labeled unamerican. Its freaking opposing everything this nation stands for. It's youre continual desire to see President Bush fail, even if it means this nation fails with it. Its your continual badmouthing of everything this nation does.

And if you think everyone on this board supports everything the President does your a freaking illiterate, because we speak out against dumb moves too. We just arent about to go undermine our military when they are out defending us.

Like I said its pieces of crap like you who care more about getting your political power back then the survival of this nation. It must suck to know that whats bad for america is good for you.

And if you care so damn much about what the Founding Fathers wants for this nation. youd be fighting to get the full executive power restored to the President instead of the watered down power he has been left. Congress and the Courts have robbed past Presidents, this President, and Future Presidents. If you care at all about the Constitutional youll fight to give the President back His full power so He can execute His Constitutional duties, such as saving your sorry ass.