"I've never seen a President — I don't care who he is — stand up to them. It just boggles the mind. They always get what they want. The Israelis know what is going on all the time. I got to the point where I wasn't writing anything down. If the American people understood what a grip these people have got on our government, they would RISE UP IN ARMS. Our citizens certainly don't have any idea what goes on."
Thomas H. Moorer
(1912 - 2004)
Admiral,
US Navy & Chairman,
Joint Chiefs of Staff during interview on
24 August 1983.
How US Foreign Policies Fuel Anti-American Feelings Abroad
ReplyDeleteLinda Heard, sierra12th@yahoo.co.uk (Arab News- April 11, 2006)
The US is hardly winning friends or influencing anybody, except negatively, these days. Certainly, within my lifetime, anti-American feeling has never been as rife or on such a worldwide scale. At the same time, the Bush administration is spending billions on propaganda so as to run TV and radio stations directed at altering the perceptions of peoples of the Middle East, while the Pentagon has actually paid journalists in the region to append their bylines to US-generated stories.
But can such tactics work while US troops still occupy Afghanistan and Iraq, Palestinians are being punished for making the “wrong” democratic choices and war drums are beating against Iran and Syria?
Ordinary American tourists are often at the receiving end of policies forged on Pennsylvania Avenue. Many have got to the point where they invariably say they’re Canadians when asked where they come from.
Recently, a mild-mannered taxi driver told me how he had picked up a couple from outside the American Embassy in Cairo and when he tried to make friendly conversation by asking whether they were Americans, he got a shock. He says, they first looked at one another before saying almost in unison “No...No... We’re not American. Stop. Stop. We want to get out.”
Then just last week, between sips of cappuccino in my local coffee shop accompanied by an Egyptian friend, I struck up a conversation with a middle-aged American couple sitting at the next table. When the subject turned to George Bush and his policies, they both became visibly nervous, and quickly dashed off.
In neither of the above two incidents had the Americans been insulted or threatened, and, indeed, Egyptians are invariably friendly to visitors no matter where they’re from. Were those reactions, therefore, paranoia on the part of those US travelers?
To some extent, I believe they were because I do not believe that American people are disliked; on the contrary, in this part of the world they are often very much admired.
Until Bush moved into the White House, most Egyptians dreamt of one day visiting the States. Americans should be made to realize that Arabs are perfectly capable of distinguishing between the actions of governments and the hearts of their nationals.
When it comes to US officials, however, it’s a different story. The recent visit of US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to northern England accompanied by her new best friend Britain’s Foreign Secretary Jack Straw gave anti-war protesters the perfect opportunity to vent their spleen. A long-arranged visit to a mosque was canceled at the last minute and parents of schoolchildren objected to Rice being taken on a tour of their local school.
The US Ambassador to Britain Robert Holmes Tuttle was singled out by London’s outspoken anti-war Mayor Ken Livingstone for refusing to pay mandatory tolls on embassy cars entering the capital.
Livingstone reacted by labeling the ambassador “a chiseling little crook” better suited to being a car salesman. Was this anti-Americanism? Probably, because there are several other embassies that are refusing to cough up, and which have not elicited a similar undiplomatic tirade.
The US Ambassador to Venezuela William Brownfield also bore the brunt of anti-US feelings in that country when his car was pelted with tomatoes, onions and eggs. This followed on from an incident several months ago when anti-US protesters forced him to hole up in a building for hours.
The Egyptian press isn’t too fond of US ambassadors either. Former Ambassador to Egypt David Welch was ostracized by the press union for interfering in the country’s internal affairs and attempting to influence editorials.
Former US Ambassador to Turkey Eric Edelman was asked by Rice to “calm anti-Americanism in the Turkish media”. In fact, much of it was directed at him and his response was to resign his post. “Eric Edelman acts more like a colonial governor than an ambassador,” wrote a Turkish columnist.
In 2003, US Ambassador to Greece John Brady Kiesling wrote a dramatic letter of resignation to the then Secretary of State Colin Powell.
“Service as a US diplomat was a dream job,” he wrote. “I was paid to understand foreign languages and cultures, so seek out diplomats, politicians, scholars and journalists, and to persuade them that US interests and theirs fundamentally coincided. My faith in my country and its values was the most powerful weapon in my diplomatic arsenal”. But, he says, “The policies we are now asked to advance are incompatible not only with American values but also with American interests”.
Being an American ambassador is no longer anybody’s dream job. US embassies around the world are fortified like garrisons after several have come under attack, while diplomats are being asked to sell wars, under the guise of spreading democracy and “our way of life” to skeptical local populations.
The Bush administration is currently concerned about a wave of anti-Americanism throughout Latin America resulting in a string of left of center governments being brought to power, cheerlead by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who, together with Cuba’s Castro and Bolivia’s Evo Morales, is touting the new “Axis of Good”.
Ironically, it is due to Bush’s wars pushing up the price of oil, that Venezuela is flush with petroleum cash. This bounty Chavez liberally distributes to his regional allies in return for their loyalty. Chavez is also reaching out to form ties with Iran and other US foes, and believes the White House is planning to invade his country.
We can only conclude that if the US administration is serious about fighting terror and dampening down anti-Americanism it is going about it the wrong way. No matter how much it spends on propaganda unless it changes the way it treats the rest of the world, anti-Americanism is not only here to stay, it is likely to increase.
I look forward to the day when Americans can travel the world without feeling they have to stick a Canadian maple leaf on their backpacks and I’m sure for many Americans abroad that day can’t come soon enough.