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They're Not Going To Like Us(And do you really care?)
WASHINGTONPOST.COM ^ | September 23, 2005 | David Ignatius

Posted on 09/23/2005 7:48:45 AM PDT by kellynla

CAIRO -- For a people who want to be loved as much as Americans do, these are trying times. People around the world see our troubles in Iraq and say we had it coming. They hear us talk about Arab democracy and think we're trying to steal their oil. Some even take a kind of perverse satisfaction in seeing us battered by monster hurricanes.

Other great nations throughout history have done a better job of being disliked. The British during their days of empire treated the rest of the world with a cool imperial disdain. The French under Charles de Gaulle regarded haughtiness as a national virtue. The Russians were brutally indifferent, the Chinese politely so. All these powers in their moments of greatness treated the rest of the world as quasi-barbarians. If they were hated in return, so what?

Indifference is not an American trait. Part of our Benjamin Franklin heritage of industry and self-improvement is that we want to be admired, applauded -- and, yes, loved. When we discover that we are in fact deeply unpopular in many parts of the world, we think we must have a communications problem. So the call goes out for Karen Hughes and the public diplomacy specialists.

I've had a lesson in our unpopularity in Egypt, where I've been hearing anti-American broadsides from activists who should be thanking the Bush administration for its pro-democracy stance. These are people who, but for the administration's pressure over the past few years on Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, might well be in prison. But do they appreciate President Bush's help? Not on your life.

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Editorial; Extended News; Foreign Affairs
KEYWORDS: egypt
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I didn't think so. :-]

"Take the pro-democracy speech in June by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. She told an audience at the American University in Cairo that the administration was breaking with a 60-year-old policy that "pursued stability at the expense of democracy" and choosing instead to support democratic activists even when they challenged pro-U.S. rulers such as Mubarak. But the Egyptians remained dubious, to put it mildly."

1 posted on 09/23/2005 7:48:46 AM PDT by kellynla
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To: kellynla
For a people who want to be loved as much as Americans do, these are trying times.

Correction -For a people who want to be loved as much as American liberals do, these are trying times.

There, much better...

2 posted on 09/23/2005 7:50:18 AM PDT by frogjerk (LIBERALISM - Being miserable for no good reason)
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To: kellynla

LIBS: "Why don't you love me?!?!? Waaaa...I want my two mommies!!!"

3 posted on 09/23/2005 7:51:37 AM PDT by frogjerk (LIBERALISM - Being miserable for no good reason)
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To: kellynla

How many billions do we send to Egypt every year? Cut them off.


4 posted on 09/23/2005 7:52:12 AM PDT by Last Dakotan
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To: kellynla

libs want to be loved.
conservatives want to be respected.
those who cant' see the diff will never be respected.


5 posted on 09/23/2005 7:53:08 AM PDT by camle (keep your mind open and somebody will fill it full of something for you.)
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To: kellynla

Yes, we do really care... because when people "don't like" us enough, they try to kill us.


6 posted on 09/23/2005 7:53:53 AM PDT by Lejes Rimul (Paleo and Proud)
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To: kellynla
For a people who want to be loved as much as Americans do...

The rest of the world can keep sending me disposable trinkets and oil. In return, I'll give them some pittance of my wealth.

Love has no place in this equation.

7 posted on 09/23/2005 7:55:09 AM PDT by dead (I've got my eye out for Mullah Omar.)
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To: camle

"libs want to be loved.
conservatives want to be respected.
those who cant' see the diff will never be respected."

And recovering libs still need to be loved. I witnessed this when I took a recently reformed liberal to the move america forward pro troop rally. He was very nervous that libs he knew would find out. He left even before the bus arrived. Liberalism is very tough to kick...worse than heroin I'm afraid....



8 posted on 09/23/2005 7:57:07 AM PDT by fizziwig
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To: Lejes Rimul
Yes, we do really care... because when people "don't like" us enough, they try to kill us.

Pissy French people or whinging nordics don't try to kill you if they don't love you. That's what fundamentalist muslims do.

Fundamentalist muslims will never love you until you're a fellow fundamentalist muslim or dead.

Which one you want to be?

9 posted on 09/23/2005 7:58:40 AM PDT by dead (I've got my eye out for Mullah Omar.)
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To: fizziwig

so is stupidity, but some of us got by it...


10 posted on 09/23/2005 8:00:02 AM PDT by camle (keep your mind open and somebody will fill it full of something for you.)
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To: frogjerk
Correction -For a people who want to be loved as much as American liberals do, these are trying times.

I always tell me kids, I don't care if they like me, but they'd better respect me!!

11 posted on 09/23/2005 8:00:47 AM PDT by KosmicKitty (Well... There you go again!)
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To: kellynla

The question isn't one of why do they hate us. The question is instead, "Why do they think we are pussies?"

I don't ask or expect people in other countries to like me, but a darn well expect them to treat me and mine with the same deference and respect with which I would treat them.


12 posted on 09/23/2005 8:00:49 AM PDT by .cnI redruM ("They're thin and they were riding bicycles" - Ted Turner on NK malnutrition.)
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To: fizziwig

"Liberalism is very tough to kick...worse than heroin I'm afraid...."

It's difficult to break off from an entrenched mindset you've had for a while. It just takes time and surrounding yourself with the right people. Back in high school when I started paying attention to politics my last couple of years, I had some liberal tendancies that were tough to break out of (before then I just went with the flow and didn't care to form any political opinions), and I still sometimes find myself having to fight back a few liberal-leaning tendancies in my thinking towards things. Doesn't help that I'm at a liberal university, but a little time at freerepublic and at the fire station will definitely cure that.


13 posted on 09/23/2005 8:02:27 AM PDT by Firefigher NC (Volunteer firefighters- standing tall, serving proud in the tradition of Ben Franklin.)
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To: kellynla

Why are we subsidizing nations that hate us?


14 posted on 09/23/2005 8:03:15 AM PDT by Brilliant
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To: kellynla

"...In contrast, fewer American troops may actually make it easier to stabilize the country,"

History is NOT on the side of this writer's theory - Look back to what happened to Cambodia, Laos and South Vietnam when U.S. troops left.


15 posted on 09/23/2005 8:03:30 AM PDT by ronjon
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To: Lejes Rimul

"Yes, we do really care"
Well I hate to burst your bubble but there are verrrry few nations who "like" us. LOL

and just because someone doesn't like you, doesn't necessarily mean they want to kill you.

We just liberated FIFTY MILLION MUSLIMS in the last three years...
shouldn't they "like" us yet they want to kill us??


16 posted on 09/23/2005 8:05:31 AM PDT by kellynla (U.S.M.C. 1st Battalion,5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Div. Viet Nam 69&70 Semper Fi)
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To: Firefigher NC

"An American wants to be liked everywhere and is dissappointed when he is not. An Englishman doesn't expect to be liked everywhere and couldn't care less when he is not." - J.B. Priestly


17 posted on 09/23/2005 8:05:37 AM PDT by massgopguy (massgopguy)
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To: kellynla
"An uncharitable world expects America to act in its own interests, and so we should."

Bingo!

18 posted on 09/23/2005 8:09:00 AM PDT by jim macomber (Author: "Bargained for Exchange", "Art & Part", "A Grave Breach" http://www.jamesmacomber.com)
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To: kellynla
People around the world see our troubles in Iraq and say we had it coming.

We are not having troubles in Iraq, things are going about as expected which is amazingly well. Everyone understood from the beginning that it would be a huge undertaking.

19 posted on 09/23/2005 8:11:13 AM PDT by oldbrowser (A living, breathing constitution is a usurpation of the people's sovereignty)
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To: Lejes Rimul
"when people "don't like" us enough, they try to kill us."
Well, we could beat them on the draw, using technological superiority to do so. It will solve a lot of problems.
20 posted on 09/23/2005 8:14:53 AM PDT by GSlob
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