Anti-Americanism

Armstrong Williams
Tuesday, June 1, 2004

The Marshall Plan, or America's decision to rebuild Europe and Japan following World War II, was quite new. It went beyond traditional notions of geography and history and embraced a new vision: using free trade and democracy to create a series of interlocking relationships that end war.

In many ways, it birthed history's first democratic empire. It also exemplified what is great about this country - a democratic ideal, a sprit of greater good. And it worked, not just to make the world safer, but to make it better. I don't think there can be any argument about this. The success of America in the post war period represents the triumph of democracy and modernity over feudal disunity.

But there has been some interesting hangover from this success. With the rise of America, the global balance of power shifted away from the old European powers. One of the more predictable responses has been an undercurrent of jealousy about the relative strength and position of prominence that the United States enjoys in the world.

President Bush's invasion of Iraq provided the old European powers with some convenient cover to act out this jealousy. If you listen to the European leaders it often sounds as if they are blaming America for what happened on September 11. They talk less and less about the terrorists, and more and more about America's relative wealth and wastefulness.

In such a manner, they transform the United States into a Texas-sized target for all the ills of modernity. Cue the sentiments of envy and resentment. The UN responds by lashing out at the abuse of Iraqi prisoners. They do not pass resolutions when an American is decapitated live on the Internet.

If this seems like odd behavior, considering we keep U.S. troops stationed in Europe for their own protection, it is also somewhat predictable. It's basic scapegoating, a way to claim intellectual and moral superiority over the lone superpower, to identify yourself as part of a resistance, and to provide some psychological linkage to the glory days of the old European empires.

It's the rhetorical equivalent of asserting your masculine dominance. Anti-Americanism is how France, which has the Gross National Product of Georgia, is able to still occupy a place on the world stage.

We see a similar - albeit more vitriolic - response from non-western countries. As Samuel P. Huntington observed in The Clash of Civilizations: "The underlying problem for the West is not Islamic fundamentalism. It is Islam, a different civilization whose people are convinced of the superiority of their culture and are obsessed with the inferiority of their power."

Often, the leaders of the Arab world capitalize on these feelings of anger and inferiority to distract citizens from their own failed rule. Economic stagnation is blamed on a nexus of crippling political decisions handed down by America. Citizens are told their way of life is under assault. The youth display their loyalty to the state by strapping bombs to their chest and blowing themselves up.

So long as the citizens are kept red of tooth and claw, they have little time to reflect on the mismanagement and oppression of their own leaders. Nor do they push for things like equality or democracy or market privatization or any number of policies that are badly needed in the Arab world.

More shocking is the strain of anti-Americanism that exists here at home. Leftist newspapers and academics seem dedicated to deconstructing America for not being a utopia. They vent the frustrations and problems of modernity at America.

They do not hold other countries to this level of scrutiny. Nor do they compare the United States to other countries.

They merely turn their scrutiny inward, as if they were guilty and ashamed for their own affluence. I suppose it is a measure of how good things are in America that its critics chose to focus on the problems of modernity. It is a safe bet that the citizens of Zimbabwe are more worried about whether their children will eat, than on contemplating their own existential angst.

This kind of self loathing and empathy for our attackers is dangerous because it reinforces to the radicals that attacking the US is the best way to win concessions. It is also terribly misguided.

Very simply, we should not feel guilty for being the world's sole superpower. We should not feel guilty for standing up for ourselves. We should not feel guilty for rooting out groups of people who sit around and plot ways to murder as many Americans as possible. Nor should we feel guilty for having a president who is willing to do something about this.