What's truly amazing about the response to the death of Osama bin Laden in the USA is the total absence of even a wisp of American self-appraisal in the face of the reality that people abroad hate the United States and everything they think we stand for. There's a total lack of intellectual curiosity and a total lack of honesty from those who should know better.
Nowhere have I heard or seen a reporter ask -- and I say so as a journalist who knows what real reporters should ask -- "Why did Osama hate us?" or "Why do his followers, sympathizers and distant fellow travelers hate us?"
In Latin America, the entire Osama episode is a funny joke.
Seen from their perspective, ten years ago the invulnerable, all-powerful Pentagon let two people armed with box cutters cut a hole in the headquarters of the U.S. armed forces. Now our public is angry at Pakistan for not realizing that Osama was among them? As if our government hadn't sent approved student visas to the 9/11 suicide attackers weeks after the attacks!
Ever heard of incompetence, fellow Americans? And I mean our own.
But back to the central issue here: Why are we as a nation so stupidly, stubbornly, embarrassingly incapable of demonstrating the slightest capacity to look at things from any point of view other than our own? How can such a narcissistic nation possibly aspire to lead the world?
Honestly, I wonder if there is anyone out there -- it's not on the radio, TV, in the newspapers, or in the blogosphere -- wonders why they, people other than Americans, hate us so much. I do.
2 comments:
I don't hate you personally, in fact, I quite like you. But I can understand why many people hate American hubris. "We have it all; we shall show these savages how to live decent, Christian lives!"
Joan
The problem is quite easy to explain. We have gone from a Christian nation to a powerful, ungodly materialistic nation. We believe we are the no can do wrong nation. We exploit countries that have oil and leave the ones that dont to fend for themselves. We say we go to save those that exploit human rights yet we leave african nations that have no oil to die. We sleep with the most inhumane nation in the world call China. We are the leader in the number of murders in teh free world yet we dictate to others how to live. We are invaded by an evil Osama yet we invade Iraq and let 200,000 Iraqis die. We are a immature nation that has alot to learn. Unfortunately it is surely going to be the hard way.
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