We’ve been hearing so much lately about anti-Americanism, it’s almost a cliche as a story. Yeah, yeah, they hate us, we know it. What can we do? Somewhat lost in the debate are the reasons why there appears to be so much disgruntlement (nice word!) with the American way. Sure, the policies of the Bush Administration appear to be to blame…a lot of people around the world don’t like what we’re doing in Iraq. But as this editorial in the LA Times attempts to point out, there’s more to the question than meets to eye.
Julia E. Sweig is a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and the author of a new book called “Friendly Fire: Losing Friends and Making Enemies in the Anti-American Century.” She points to a host of other issues that have caused people around world to get their panties in a bunch. The Cold war legacy, she says, left a residue of dissatisfaction with American policy. All that nasty business in Latin America and South east Asia, stuff that, she suggest, we’ve kind of forgotten (she nicely quotes Gore Vidal, who quipped we should be called the United States of Amnesia). Then there is the matter of our power. everyone hates the big guy, that’s just natural, so much of the antipathy has to do with being number one.
Let’s see, what else. Oh, yeah, globalization. We’ve run around telling everyone how great free markets are and then when some countries like Peru or Bolivia give the free market thing a try and come up more poor than they were before, they grow skeptical. Add into that equation all this business with American farm subsidies not really being free market after all, and you can see why there’s some doubting Thomasses out there.
My opinion is that this whole-anti-American thing will likely pass. We’re still a country whose heart is in the right place and is a wonderful place to live and visit . I suspect that once this nasty Iraq business is behind us and once the Arab/Israeli imbroglio hits a stasis again (as it will, though it will never be solved), folks will lighten up a bit about America. I could be wrong, but if America is still loathed in five years, I’ll be surprised.
In the meantime, what I suggest we do is hold a contest around the globe for some 5,000 people from every country. We’ll pay for them to come here and hang out with us for a few weeks. Then, when they go back, they’ll tell all their friends about what we’re really like.
Problem solved. See?