No goodwill to squander

National Post ^ | 2006-09-13 | Andrew Coyne

[Axhandle]

"Today, America is more hated than ever."

Maybe so. But many thousands of our enemies are dead.

[beyond the sea]

"As we have learned, moreover, this is about much more than al-Qaeda, or the United States. With each new atrocity around the world, it grows more evident the real threat is Islamic extremism, and the real target is the civilized world."

[Clive]

"What was the end of all the show,
Johnnie, Johnnie?"
Ask my Colonel, for ~I~ don't know,
Johnnie, my Johnnie, aha!
We broke a King and we built a road --
A court-house stands where the reg'ment goed.
And the river's clean where the raw blood flowed
When the Widow give the party.

From "The Widows Party" by Rudyard Kipling

[beyond the sea]

excellent

[Clive]

Article: "Today, America is more hated than ever."

Axhandle: Maybe so. But many thousands of our enemies are dead.

It is one of the imperatives of empire.

Being the world's only superpower means putting up with geopolitical hostility arising from that fact alone.

[nctexan]

Very good summary of our situation from Canada. Andrew Coyne seems to 'get it' and be able to say it.

Well worth reading in detail.

[RangerM]

Postulate: Every empire in history has ultimately fallen because of the influence of (a)religion.

I haven't thought of an example that would disprove this. Any thoughts?

[DustyMoment]

Squandered goodwill is just code meaning "Look at all the foreign aid money we blew trying to buy friendship from people who hated us BEFORE 9/11"!

As the article notes - these people hated us before we did anything in the ME - they're just more open about it todaay.

[mainepatsfan]

Don't we teach our kids to do the right thing rather than the popular thing?

[Berlin_Freeper]

"Today, America is more hated than ever."

That is not true. Perhaps that could have been said when the US was first liberating Iraq and TV was showing pictures of stuff getting blown up or and the average person mistakingly thought the US military was running amok or even more recently with Israel protecting itself. But things have happened since then such as more terrorist attacks, attempted attacks and even the cartoon war opened a lot of eyes as to who the real murderous threat is. I can definitely say that in Germany there is more of an understanding of the US position on the War on Terror now then there was some years ago.

The America haters will always hate America but reasonable fair minded people will always tilt to some degree between love and hate for America depending on the circumstances of the time and at this particular time it most definitely cannot be said "Today, America is more hated than ever."

Also, I am always amused by this notion of concern of how the world views America. When it comes to certain issues like security, both internal and external, the whole rest of the world can take a flying leap as far as I am concerned. Does it really matter what people think when the US is doing what must be done? Heck no, that is not reality. It would be nice if they saw our view but when we got a whole political party, namely the Treasonous Democrats and their Media propaganda agents trying to make political gains by siding against our best national interests with propaganda that actually takes sides with the terrorists, then that opens the door all around the world for criticism that is factually wrong and needs to be rejected.

America is in a position where we have the focus of attention on us but does anyone think the whole rest of the world loves each other? I got news for you... The Dutch dislike the Germans, the Finns dislike the Swedes, the Scott's dislike the English, the Brazilians dislike the Argentinians, and the list goes on and on and on and on. Most any bordering countries have an inherent dislike for each other, much like you will find between US and Canada or US and Mexico. It is like that all over most of the whole world. Yet America has the main focus and fascination of all of them because of America's success and status as world power.

Since the whole rest of the world dislikes their neighbors what could America realistically expect from other countries? Nothing much good to start from that is for sure. So what we are up against as Americans is human nature, a circumstance that is inherently against us due to rivalry born of petty jealousy.

And even then we many times surmount this awkward position we find ourselves in and you can find many people around the world that understand and respect America due to our generous and humane qualities as freedom loving people who are all about human rights, equality and living life to the fullest. It is only when the average open minded person around the world thinks we are failing to live up to those qualities and are doing harm rather than good, do they tend to tilt toward hate. But as far as "today" goes, no the world does not hate us more than ever before, such hard feelings have eroded.

[LibLieSlayer]

bubba was hated around the world, but dims want you to forget... islamics danced in the streets of the ME while people were still dying on 9/11... dims want you to forget... bubba upon visiting in Europe, euros protested in the streets, riots broke out, police dispersed with tear gas... dims want you to forget... well I ain't fergettin'!

LLS

[tedric]

Words are cheap.

"We are all Americans today"...

"Side-by-side until justice is done"....

The words of our European allies were true until they were asked to actually do something.

Don't talk the talk if you can't walk the walk.

[bill1952]

Rome.

[auboy]

BUMP!

[tedric]

Imperial Japan 1945

No religion brought them down. Just a good old fashioned ass kicking.

[Kakaze]

1. Vulnerable and wounded you hate me

2. Formidable , prepared and willing to act without remorse to protect our own..you hate me.

I'll take option 2

[Bahbah]

or the continuing fixation with whether Saddam Hussein was personally responsible -- as if the issue were avenging the last attack, rather than preventing the next.

A wonderful line out of a completely marvelous piece. If they would love us were we to wallow in our victimhood, then we will have to do without that love which, as Coyne points out, was never really there anyway.

[fanfan]

Canada ping.

Please send me a FReepmail to get on or off this Canada ping list.

[MissAmericanPie]

We must face the truth that the rest of the world is in the grip of madness. The rest of the world has lost all ability to make moral judgements which makes them suicidal.

It's easy to stand on the sidelines cheering on terrorists and the countries that sponser them and do business with Europe in the vain hope that should Islam win they will remember their friends and allow France to remain France, Germany to remain Germany. That is their self delusion. These people are so morally depraved that they would gladly convert to Islam to save their skins.

Should America win their skins are saved and they can still hang on to their hate America jealousy and be resentful of the economic loss they will suffer with the defeat of Islam. So they figgure they are in a win, win position.

It is not America against Islam it is America against the world for the most part. A world America saved from Nazism, a world America rebuilt with it's own money, never to be repaid. A world America has sacrificed it manufacturing to in order to prop up nations that have no resources to support themselves.

Realizing this we should withdraw from the U.N. refuse to buy goods from any member nation that remains in the U.N., bring our maufacturing base back from over seas and only buy from our own. Disallow any foreign involvment in our corporations or infra-structure and let Europe sink or swim on it's own hook.