In 1995 I met a Honduran security supervisor at my place of work.
He is a former Marine who served in Desert Storm.
He told me a story of how when he was a kid after an earthquake, American helicopters were the first on the scene with relief.
From that day all he wanted was to become an American soldier.............
and he got his wish.
Well, if cab drivers like the rag head in that e-mail want America out, it reinforces my earlier view that Indonesia and any other Muslim country that got flooded can drink saltwater.
I have an expanding list of friends around the world and I am finding that there are a lot of people who think America is "wonderful".
Good story. I do a lot of international travel, and I do not find that the average person anywhere is really anti-American. It is abroad as it is here -- the media and universities are hotbeds of anti-Americanism. In third world countries, my experience has been the vast majority could not care less if you are from the US or from Mars. If anything, they seem to admire us for our power and wealth. But even in officially "hostile" countries -- like France (or even Syria) -- the everyday person is fine and interacts normally. It is the opinion-makers who hate us. On a person-to-person level, I have found very little anti-Americanism.
"In fact, I think we were probably even cooler looking than the current crop of flingwing birdmen."
Of course! I've been telling my little brother that for years.
Good post with good insights from the area.
I'm reminded of a saying:
"What other people think of me is none of my business. "
"Remember, Aceh is traditionally the most rabidly-religious Muslims in Indonesia"
Yeah, and the Indonesian govt.(if you want to call it that) is one of the most corrupt in the world.
I don't give a rats behind what they think of us. The average Iraqi will revere us soon, methinks.
Better yet, what does America think of Indonesia? Not much.
One day these countries will learn that what is important is not what they think of us, but what we think of them.
Finding the UN as the source of jihadi rhetoric is no surprise; they've been so before, as have Ted "Drunken Manslaughter" Kennedy, John "Backstabbing Brother" Kerry, Michael aka "Micky D" Moore, Jimmy "The Traitor President" Carter, and the New York Times.
I believe that men like Abdurahman Wahid, and his Nahdlatul Ulama party, are more reflective of the belief system embraced by most Indonesians than the reactionary, deranged, sectarian radicals you will find joining groups like the Islamic Defenders Front and JI.
The people living in Aceh are in the distinct minority, as it concerns the most widely practiced way of observing the critical tenets of Islam.
However, this does not exculpate most Indonesians from an irrational, seething anti-Americanism, which will not be ameliorated by the efforts of even the most secular political party.
I think that a lot of people conflate the concepts of Islamic radicalism and virulent anti-Americanism, simply because both pernicious values overlap in certain volatile regions of the world, e.g. Indonesia, Pakistan, Egypt, etc., etc...
The truth is, for the most part, these are two entirely distinct phenomena-which, if we are ever to defeat either-will need completely different approaches by the U.S. government.