Posted on 09/10/2011 5:32:48 PM PDT by Sherman Logan
The tragic events of 9/11 were immediately followed by a grotesque and shameful fusillade of anti-Americanism, which still resonates today.
I had already written my column that day. I still recall, although almost everything else from that morning is wiped from my memory, that the subject of it – this column that no one would ever see – was Tony Blair's upcoming appearance at the TUC conference.
Because I had been engrossed in producing my copy for the next day, September 12, 2001, I had not heard any news. In the early afternoon, I filed my piece and turned on the television.
A few moments later, the telephone rang. The then editor of The Daily Telegraph, Charles Moore, asked me to write the new column from the personal point of view of an expatriate American. In fact, it would have been quite impossible to do anything else. I would not have been capable – am still not capable – of writing about the event in a way that is not personal.
What was it like to watch the country (and for me, as it happened, the city) in which you had grown up being attacked in the most monumental, catastrophic way – not just from a geographical distance, but from the semi-detachment of exile? I've spoken to many expatriates about this experience since, and most of them shared the same sense of irrational survivor's guilt: I should have been there.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
I live in an area that is host to dozens of expats from dozens of foreign countries, and it is the Brits that consistently offer up the most vehement & condescending criticism of the US. They seem to not feel the need to hold back at all.
A couple of years after 9/11, I had the occasion to spend several months traveling in Europe in a place where there were people not just from that country but from all over Europe.
The ones who hated us most were the Germans, and I almost struck one who kept after me about how the US had “deserved” 9/11. Bear in mind that I didn’t know this guy; as soon as he found out from someone else that I was an American, he felt justified in coming over and attacking me and simply would not give it up and go away. I had the same experience with other Germans later on this trip.
The Brits I met were obviously knee-jerk anti-American, but they were a little more polite and I sensed that some of them actually did feel sympathetic.
I love my British Roots, but sadly, some Brit's can be the most condescending people on earth. I think it might be because they know England has wronged a great majority of people (especially on their own Island cough*Scotland*cough*Ireland*cough) so they hate on America if/when she screws up or things don't go our way.
When I was still in the Army in Germany, we were deactivating my unit. One day, we turned in one tank and the German inspector kept telling me that we had done something wrong and he couldn’t accept it that way. I kept showing him the instructions we had and that it was done right. Finally, after about 10 minutes of going back and forth, I just told him if he wanted to make the rules, then Germany needed to win the next war. I thought the old goat was going to have a heart attack. Best way to deal with them is to stand up and tell them off. The current German nation(with a few exceptions) are mostly a bunch of liberal pansies who couldn’t fight their way out of paper bag with a blow torch.
Growing up I was always fond of Britain and everything British. Ten years ago my foolish and irrational thought of them as my friends stopped. I no longer think of them fondly or wish them well as a nation although I thank their troops for the sacrifice they have made.
I was in a little town in Russia when 9/11 happened, and for days old women in the village would come up to me with tears in their eyes and make the sign of the cross over me, Orthodox-style.
While stationed in Iraq along with multi-national special operations forces, the Brits always seemed to 'disapprove' of our (US) rather boisterous humor. A comment came over from the Brits; "Bloody Colonist" to which I relied; "Sore Losers". The other Brits sitting around the one who made the first comment bust up laughing and told him; "The Yank's got you there!" In the grand scheme of things, it was in pretty poor taste to make any degrading comment to someone who's going to have your back when things go terribly wrong.
Married to a Brit and lived there a number of years. Was around many ‘academics’ at dinner/ cocktail parties(card carrying Commies and Socialists.....NO kidding). Was ganged up on one night after the Chardonnay was flowing freely. They called us a bunch of ‘Imperialists’....and one couldn’t understand why (at the time) questionnaires to enter the country asked: “Have you ever been a member of the Communist Party?” I was REALLY getting snark. Then I said....”I think it’s high time you put great pressure on and protest your government to break ALL ties with the US.” The look on their faces were as if they shat themselves. That was the end of the convo.
Another matter: My sis was hosting an exchange student from Germany when 9/11 happened. When they were discussing matters at the dinner table....he smirked and said that we ‘deserved it’. My sister lay into him like a hen on a junebug. Needless to say....she NEVER hosted an exchange student again.
Germans are blunt and to the point. So the rejoinder should have been, "Auschwitz, I mean, Oh sh*t."
The Queen honoured America by having her guards play the US anthem at Buckingham Palace right after the attacks. Sadly many did not follow her example. She grew up during World War II so she had a sense of history that again many younger do not.
I find this very odd. My daughter was going to school in London on 9/11 and she said the people could not have been nicer.
Thats odd. What I remember is the Star Spangled Banner being played at Buckingham Palace during the changing of the guard that day, instead of the traditional “God Save the Queen”. And lots of flowers being laid in front of the US embassy.
Exactly.
My other thought is that it's a dog eat dog world and to expect sympathy from other nations is probably a mistake. The norm is for people to delight in other people's suffering. And of course there's that old line about nations not having friends, only common interests.
We just retired from teaching in the military dependent schools in the Stuttgart area. The second day after the attack on 9/11, one of the students who walked through our street on his or her way to school wrote a message on our car’s windshield: “I love America! “ It was a simple gesture, but a very dear one. The German soldiers who came to be the base’s gate guards were very nice guys. We took them meals at Thanksgiving and Christmas. One of the soldiers gave me his insignia from his cap, he was from the Edelweiss division. I have it still. I know a lot of Germans felt the same as the Brits, but they were probably about equally divided in sympathy or in feeling we got a comeuppance.
There is a divergence between the political elites of Europe and their populations. My experience is that in some countries the populus of Western Europe is much more hostile to the US than the political power structure that understands the advantage of maintaining friendly relations with the US. I think much of the sentiment expressed by those governments were not equally shared by a majority of their leftist populus.After the shock wore off, they returned to the vitriol.And yes I do think the English,particularly in London, are probably the most hostile. I was stationed in Germany in the seventies and I never experienced the hostility related by some posters here. I guess the mindset has changed over there.
Being military we have acquired many foreign friends and we have Irish, French and British relatives as well and we received many messages and words of support that day and thereafter.
Of course they are all fine conservative folk. I mean, we have plenty of leftists who hate America here!
I think it’s a left-right thing more than an American-foreigner thing.
Some of the commenters said that the hostility was in part provoked by British resentment over unofficial U.S. support for the IRA.
It also could be a “regional” thing. E.g., we know big cities here tend to be liberal commie bastions. I know my so-called “blue” (we used to be labeled appropriately red) state is a minefield for any expression of support of US ideals (”God bless EVERY nation, not just 1” whiny stickers). Although I also know even in the borders it’s safer in the “extreme” wings to be conservative. It could be the people here experience those who are in/come from the liberal areas.
Who supports the $#%!%#@ IRA?
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