For the record, I didn't mention Jeanne D'Arc's post, which I hadn't read. Now that I've read it, I find it to be excellent (like most of Jeanne's writing) and entirely respectful of its subject: indeed, she says much kinder thinks about the deceased than I could find it in my heart to say.
My post referred to what Cheem calls the "ding dong, the witch is dead" reaction, which strikes me as being both in poor taste and politically counterproductive.
France was listed apart for two reasons: anti-French prejudice (which I ranted against at length a year ago) has been more prominent in America than prejudice against other Europeans , and because the first link didn't mention France but the second did.
I hope that clears up any misunderstanding.
But while I'm commenting: Am I the only one who things that for a citizen of the United States to pretend to be something else in order to avoid political arguments is profoundly disgraceful behavior? If we think it absurd and disgusting for the right wing to criticize Frenchpeople for the behavior of the French government towards the tyranny of Saddam Hussein (behavior which, in all conscience, was actually pretty disgraceful), then why should we acquiesce in, rather than confronting, anti-American prejudice among Europeans?
I hope all of those who have been scolding me for my rudeness and/or condescending to my ignorance will read Derek James's comment. I expressed the hope that European governments would rush to disabuse bin Laden of the notion that they could be chivvied into making a separate peace with him. They did so. Good.
If I couldn't say that without first offering an abject apology for being a citizen of the United States, too bad. The sensible opposite of "America is wonderful and the rest of the world sucks" is not "The rest of the world is wonderful and America sucks." Read Orwell on "negative nationalism."
Who's lecturing? I was hoping, and found my hopes justified.
This story is worth attending to because splitting off Europe from the U.S. is obviously an al-Qaeda objective, and not obviously infeasible. Undeniably, there is a strand of European opinion that thinks that Islamist terrorism is a problem due to Israeli and American policies, and that if Europe disowned those policies it could free itself from danger.
It's good news that the European governments aren't playing. And those Americans who have spent the past three years coming up with inventive new insults directed at Europeans ought to acknowledge that.
I'm not predicting that Baghdad will be another Stalingrad. I was merely making the historical point that calling a regime "Stalinist" shouldn't generate a prediction that it will crumple up quickly under foreign military attack.
| Year | Number of comments posted |
|---|---|
| 2005 | 2 |
| 2004 | 3 |
| 2003 | 1 |
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