Throughout the Iraqi war I have been surprised at the degree of hostility expressed toward the USA by left wing and nationalist politicians over the world. New Zealand has had the same debate, although very little of it has been in parliament. The celebrations on the streets of Baghdad at Saddam Hussein's fall underline the irony. Although couched in humanitarian terms the arguements tend to be anti-American. Any military reverses by the US or British troops were cheered as immensely significant such as when our Prime Minister commented that the US plan was faulty. When challenged the next day she said it was "bleedingly [sic] obvious".
I have long puzzled over the degree of anti-Americanism on the left wing of politics generally and of New Zealand in particular. I got some insight into this when I attended a lecture last year by Dr Francis Fukuyama. Dr Fukuyama is the author of the bestseller, "The End of History", which tackles the Marxist interpretation of history. Marxist history has been very influential and it predicts that societies develop in stages through tribal, feudal, capitalist and, finally, socialist stages. There is a revolution between each stage. Those that oppose the progress may win isolated victories but face eventual defeat as they are on "the wrong side of history". Fukuyama suggests instead that if there is a direction to history then it points towards liberal democracy. In other words Marx got it completely wrong.
For a long time the Marxist interpretation was unchallenged and was accepted by people who weren't Marxists. The theory predicted that the USA's attempts at anti-communist activity were doomed to failure and for a while things seemed to be going that way. The idea of an activist America was a complete anathema but as we look towards a non-communist future we need to get used to it.
So does the Prime Minister.
... Heather Roy, ACT New Zealand