phasis:

... I cannot resist pointing out that whether or not he can see it, Che Pasa's view of America as always having been an inherently evil force in the world reflects, well, an inherently American mode of seeing things. As an American who has lived abroad, in Europe, the Middle East, and in Asia, I learned a long time ago that this sort of black/white (simplistic) thinking was a mark of American innocence and laziness. ...

You are falling for the old 'America is good; and God said so' routine.

America is no more evil than other great powers have been; but this is no justification for the folly and evil that America has done. The polls measuring 'world opinion' will not be vastly effected one way or the other simply because the US was forged on genocide; after all, the Europeans are no stranger to mass murder; nor are Asians, but that does not justify US actions. No one seems to care that we stole 1/2 of Mexico by force of arms as well as duplicity, and surely that will never effect world opinion.

Consider the actions of the US in this hemisphere in the 20th century. How does one justify the interventions (overt and covert) or the use of threats? How does one justify the support we gave to right wing dictatorships? Can we merely say that world opinion seems to find the actions not all that horrid? (perhaps these things are now consigned to 'old news')

I agree that after we intervene and install our puppets that the 'winners' will think we are simply marvelous. Does this gratitude by the new overlords justify the intervention? Perhaps it simply means that all morality is relative to what you personally would do to steal from the unwashed natives --- fine, but that in itself seems pretty black/white to me.

One either can see the evil done by their own county or they can not; most can not. They see only 'error', misjudgement, or even rank stupidity; but rarely does one stop to ask if the goal itself was morally justified in the beginning.

World opinion is turning against us because of the Internet and the availability of news from so many more sources; the 6 billion little buggers get to see us as we truly are. That sight will turn their stomachs.

Where did all the comments on the first post on the US image go to? I see only one (1) now, and there were many, many more. A glitch in the system?

Glenn G.

"They maintained favorable views of the U.S. not because they were unaware of its failings, but rather, because the good that the U.S. did in the world outweighed its bad. It is misleadingly one-sided to point to Vietnam or Central American covert wars without simultaneously acknowledging America's role in the defeat of the Nazis, or its opposition to the truly oppressive Communist empire (which suffocated the lives of hundreds of millions of people), and -- I think most importantly -- the political principles and individual liberties embodied by our Constitution and the stable democracy it has secured. World opinion prior to the Bush presidency was so favorable not because people were unaware of America's flaws, but because they were so well-aware of its virtues."

The US beat the Nazis?!? Have you never heard of what the Russians did to the Germans; and have you never read what the cost was to them? Soon after WWII we built the USSR up to be supermen intent on world domination --- never mentioning that they had lost an entire generation of young men beating Germany. 20 million young men dead, and we declared them the embodiment of evil on the planet.

So, that gives up the right to intervene in Korea? Vietnam? South America? Europe? The middle east?

Please look at this short list of American actions and tell me that each one was morally justified:

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Blum/US_Interventions_WBlumZ.html

Glenn, if the 'good' outweighs the evil, please post an article defending that view with some evidence. It does no good to get the damn Republicans out if the Democrats are just going to go off and kill different women and children.

...We learned, to our surprise, perhaps to our shame, that these "backwards, uncivilized Natives" are quite capable of handling their own affairs, so long as we left them alone. And that apparently is a lesson we will have to learn over and over and over again. ...

We are the "backwards" one. A nation born in bloody genocide and slave holding that has committed mass murder over and over; and yet thinks it stands on the side of angles. How can this be? Can power blind a whole people for generations? Looks like it can.

Note: I see no place in the beatitudes where it is written; "blessed are the murderers of women and children, for they will inherit the oil kingdom."