September 11, 2003
RESENTING THE BEACON:
Foreign Views of U.S. Darken Since Sept. 11 (RICHARD BERNSTEIN, 9/11/03, NY Times)
The subject of America in the world is of course complicated, and the nation's battered international image could improve quickly in response to events. The Bush administration's recent turn to the United Nations for help in postwar Iraq may represent such an event.Even at this low point, millions of people still see the United States as a beacon and support its policies, including the war in Iraq, and would, given the chance, be happy to become Americans themselves.
Some regions, especially Europe, are split in their view of America's role: The governments and, to a lesser extent, the public in former Soviet-bloc countries are much more favorably disposed to American power than the governments and the public in Western Europe, notably France and Germany.
In Japan, a strong American ally that feels insecure in the face of a hostile, nuclear-armed North Korea, there may be doubts about the wisdom of the American war on Iraq. But there seem to be far fewer doubts about the importance of American power generally to global stability.
In China, while many ordinary people express doubts about the war in Iraq, anti-American feeling has diminished since Sept. 11, 2001, and there seems to be greater understanding and less instinctive criticism of the United States by government officials and intellectuals. The Chinese leadership has largely embraced America's "war on terror."
Still, a widespread and fashionable view is that the United States is a classically imperialist power bent on controlling global oil supplies and on military domination.
Complicated? When they need us they love us; when we need them we're evil. If they can get here they come. None of us go there. Why should foreign relations be any different than the rest of human affairs? When you need a cop you're awfully glad there's one around, but when you drive by one on the highway your bung puckers. Your neighbor may be a nice guy, but if his house is better than yours you resent him. Pretty simple really. Posted by Orrin Judd at September 11, 2003 2:11 PM
It is important to note that this is not just a response to 9/11. When I was in the Peace Corps we called it pais envy.
Posted by: Jason Johnson at September 11, 2003 2:27 PMCorrection-- the ones that leave the US are the ones we're glad to be rid of. It's just too bad that so many, like the loudmouthed Leftist Hollywood types, that threaten to leave never follow through.
Posted by: Raoul Ortega at September 11, 2003 3:03 PMHere is news flash:
"And here comes in the question whether it is better to be loved rather than feared, or feared rather than loved. It might perhaps be answered that we should wish to be both; but since love and fear can hardly exist together, if we must choose between them, it is far safer to be feared than loved. For of men it may generally be affirmed, that they are thankless, fickle, false, studious to avoid danger, greedy of gain, devoted to you while you are able to confer benefits upon them, and ready, as I said before, while danger is distant, to shed their blood, and sacrifice their property, their lives, and their children for you; but in the hour of need they turn against you. The Prince, therefore, who without otherwise securing himself builds wholly on their professions is undone. For the friendships which we buy with a price, and do not gain by greatness and nobility of character, though they be fairly earned are not made good, but fail us when we have occasion to use them.
Moreover, men are less careful how they offend him who makes himself loved than him who makes himself feared. For love is held by the tie of obligation, which, because men are a sorry breed, is broken on every whisper of private interest; but fear is bound by the apprehension of punishment which never relaxes its grasp."
Niccolo Machiavelli (1469–1527). The Prince.
The Harvard Classics. 1909–14.
http://www.bartleby.com/36/1/17.html
XVII. Of Cruelty and Clemency, and Whether It Is Better To Be Loved or Feared