Letters to the Editor
Retired Military Patriot
Published Letters: 2236 Editor's Choice: 11
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Thanks Glenn and most responders
[Read the article: The tragic collapse of America's standing in the world]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Glenn, the best thing about your articles and heart is the responses that you bring out. I learn a lot from you and them. Let me site a few examples.
GomErBene, your truthfulness hurts me as an American and I thank you for that. We do need to, “Put aside rationalisations and start to quietly go to work with other responsible adults.” We have to start that with both a grass roots movement on the Internet and streets and electing a president who understands what you have said and honestly and earnestly will inspire us to live in reality and not politics and ideology. If you’re from Great Britain, I’m sure you hope Brown will do the same.
RealName, you made a very valid point in your post that said, “Anyone can claim it's about spreading democracy or something but we all understand that's gibberish. Who on God's Grey earth is interested in 'democracy'? Do you know of any countries anywhere where this 'democracy' doesn't hold today but it could in the future? And if so, what possible role could the US or any other outside country play in that. Democracy as such has never been injected into any country anywhere, ever.”
We should not be “promoting” democracy. We should serve as a representative beacon for the rule of law and fair opportunity, something that all reasonable people would have to agree the Bush Attention Deficit Administration of Spoiled Brats has failed at miserably, and let each country find its own way based on its cultural and political heritage. Until we are in charge of a country like China with 1.3 billion citizens who lived too long under communism and then have to rapidly transform into a modern, industrialized nation, we have no business telling them to act with “democratic” principles. However, pointing out failures is easy pickings.
What are the solutions? Can we ignore the Serbians, Rwandas, and now Darfur? Can we ignore corruption that enslaves citizens? Should we have ignored Kuwait? Can we ignore the 2-3 million and growing Iraqi refugees that we are fully responsible for? Should we stop trying to help those less fortunate than ourselves? Not if we want to sleep at night. Although if I am a self-righteous neocon, I rationalize myself to sleep with no problem. And that is why we need no more Neocons or ideologues in our government.
christian h and other experts on polling, your technical objections to conclusions that Glenn has stated are ignoring the many responder's antidotes from the real life experiences of those spending time abroad over a lengthy period of time or bloggers who live outside the U.S.. They have seen the drop in America’s image first hand. That to me says more than the polls although I appreciate the effort Glenn makes to back up his assertions with facts.
SanPasqualCA, I agree with your statement, “Implicit or overt in these denialist beliefs is a notion of inherent moral and intellectual superiority of the Americans and Israelis creating the impositions, and a gross contempt for the realities in which the offending social and political arrangements in Palestine and Iraq are based. And that is what the world finds hard to tolerate in the face of the undeniable evidence to the contrary.”
Because we did not want to own up to the consequences of creating Israel, we have done little to help those displaced in Palestine. We should not have expected psychologically scarred Israelis, both here and abroad, to be able to tell us how to bring about peace. We let domestic politics and money drive us instead of fairness.
Glenn keep up your prolific work. It keeps my aging brain stimulated and my factual knowledge growing. And thanks to all the other responders who are doing the same.
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My exact position
[Read the article: Why has world opinion of the U.S. changed dramatically since 2000?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]You have clearly outlined my exact position far better than I could. For those who have not run out of optimism because of the depressing damage the neocons, ideologues and win at any cost politicians have done to our nation’s image, we know our brand of democracy is stronger than any individual or cult of psychologically damaged souls. We know we can learn much from the last six years and become an even stronger government and nation.
I would like a clarification on your concluding paragraph.
“In the last six years, America's brutality, unrestrained aggression, and violation of our own professed values have been transformed from destructive aberration into our defining attributes. And the world's population sees that transformation quite clearly and, as a result, their view of America has transformed along with it.”
Do the defining attributes include the every day America and the feeling that a foreign visitor gets when meeting with a normal citizen or seeing how we actually live and work?
I stand with Canadian Ian Welsh and what he especially said in the last paragraph you quoted. I think you do too.
Since I spent 28 years defending my country and its ideals and those on active duty are doing the same thing now, I would like to see you and the bloggers spend some time on the mental dilemma that has enveloped their lives since 2000. They have to live the reality of terrorism, death, a religious war and whether the invasion should ever have happened in their souls at a far greater cost than you or I. It involves a lot more than image.