February 14, 2003
WELCOME TO STALAG 50:
Unkind thoughts swell as the Europeans think Yank (NY Times, February 15 2003)[E]uropean anti-Americanism is more than just opposition to the policies of the Bush Administration. There is a growing sense on the left here that many of America's most admirable qualities - its respect for its great cacophony of voices, its belief in freedom, its proud democratic principles, have been trampled into oblivion by the debate over war."Something has gone terribly wrong in America," said Jacqueline Rose, a feminist scholar in Britain. "America established a certain tradition of public dissent, with the civil rights and feminist and anti-Vietnam movements. But post-September 11 there is a feeling that the American left has largely gone silent."
Writing in The Times recently, the novelist John le Carre went further. "America has entered one of its periods of historical madness, but this is the worst I can remember.
"The freedoms that have made America the envy of the world are being systematically eroded."
Opposition to the war is everywhere in western Europe. With millions of people expected to take part in antiwar protests around the world over the weekend, more and more people have been signing petitions, publishing anti-war articles in newspapers and on the internet, and giving speeches at rallies.
In France and Germany, dozens of influential writers, artists, scientists and others - including Guenter Grass, Christa Wolf and Jacques Derrida - signed a statement opposing the war.
In Britain, a petition appeared on Thursday in The Guardian, signed by, among others, the musicians Peter Gabriel and Phil Collins, the playwright David Hare and the actors Emma Thompson and Alan Rickman.
In Spain, where the film establishment turned a recent film awards ceremony into an anti-war demonstration several weeks ago, the director Pedro Almodovar plans to present an antiwar manifesto at a rally in Madrid today.
These freakin' idiots really believe that because there's not much dissent in America against the war there must be a pall of oppression settling over the nation. It never occurs to them that the war on terror might be a function of the popular will. Posted by Orrin Judd at February 14, 2003 7:27 PM
We got mugged by reality on 9-11 and that woke up appx. 70% of us. The Euros with 80% resisting this war are still in dream land. May the next heavy blow by the Islamists land in Paris and Berlin and perhaps we will then see where the threat to liberty actually lies!
Posted by: Craig at February 14, 2003 7:49 PMThe idea that there is no debate about war in this country is ridiculous on its face.
And just when exactly was it, as le Carre implies, that the U.S. was last "the envy" of Europeans? 1944? The nineteenth century?
Ross Douthat had a good word
on this.
Once you start believing Phil Collins and Peter Gabriel are the kind of people that should make up your policy, it's time to check out if there's a room available in the nearest lunatic asylum.
The blogospheric prediction that the islamofascists were going to rally all of the world's idiocies behind their demented cause, is proven completely right.
Peter:
On the other hand, it's getting easier and easier to shop, because so many countries and celebrities are adding themselves to our boycott list...
Mr. Carre' wrote "one of [America's] periods of historical madness -- what, like the pointless carnage of World War I, or the Final Solution?
Oh, wait, that was Europe.