Letters to the Editor
htakamine
Published Letters: 2
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Force of Evil
[Read the article: The tragic collapse of America's standing in the world]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Or (in the view of a small group on the Left), America is hated not because of what we have done in the last six years, but because America has been a bullying force of Evil in the world for the last several decades (at least) and our behavior under Bush is nothing new for America; it is but a natural extension of the country's foundational or long-embraced values
By reducing any possible criticism of American imperialism (let's go ahead and use the "i" word, since that's really what is being discussed here I believe) to the belief that America is a "force of Evil" (a phrase you use repeatedly in the piece) you're using a crude rhetorical device to suggest that such criticism can only be another noxious manifestation of "Manicheanism," this time on the Left rather than on the Right, and should be dismissed out of hand and not taken seriously.
As for this hastily summarized argument that recent depredations of American foreign policy are an extension of "foundational or long-embraced values" - can we take it that this refers to the fact that critics of the Vietnam War have often compared it to the Native American genocide, and pointed out that racism and religious intolerance, demonstrated on many occasions in the history of the United States, continue to fuel the Iraq War? What other "foundational or long-embraced values" could be involved here?
Anyway, it's obvious that the Pew poll you cite - since its data starts only in 1999/2000 - can't possibly dispel the possibility that America is disliked for reasons that have to do with policies that long precede the current administration. Therefore, the following broad claim, which you make later in the piece, remains unproven:
Our standing in the world has changed profoundly over the last six years -- it has collapsed almost completely -- for only one reason: because we have fundamentally changed how we conduct ourselves, the principles that guide us, the values we embody. The world was not "anti-American" before the Bush presidency, but -- at least in terms of how the world perceives our country -- it is now.
If you want to make this claim, fine, but a reasonable argument for it would have to rely on more than this poll.
Because it's also obvious that no polling data about American foreign policies could ever prove anything about their direct, concrete effects (much less about whether or not they are innately, fundamentally true to some "principle"). Polls only provide information about how those policies are perceived - and that information can be used to make deductions about how they play out in the media and how the media affect public opinion.
For those who want to argue that America under Bush is pretty much the same as it has always been -- just a slightly modified version of its decades-long bullying, imperialistic, pillaging self -- it is incumbent to explain what accounts for this grave collapse in world opinion over the last six years.
On the contrary: the view that Bush's policies are in some ways consistent with American precedent since World War II (as I believe - though I include the hedging "in some ways" because I think Bush is demonstrably worse than our previous leaders) does not all depend on interpreting the Pew poll, for the same reason given in my previous comment. The poll shows that favorable opinion of the U.S. has declined since 2000. This decline could be read as reflecting changes in political administrations and media coverage in the various countries. (That sharp drop in Germany from 2000 to 2002, and the even sharper rise in Russia in the same period, are interesting.)
I love this blog and read it regularly, but this post is not one of your best. You have every right to want to put distance between yourself and the radical Left, but you can do it more thoughtfully than this. The caricature of people who oppose U.S. foreign policy as believers in "Evil" is particularly irritating.