…that brought out the worst in Britain. Note that the know-nothing anti-Americanism continues in comments there.
I was in San Juan, Puerto Rico, getting ready to head to the airport to fly back to California, when I saw the second plane hit on television, and knew instantly that we were at war, and probably against Islamism. I didn’t bother to go to the airport, because I was pretty sure that all flights would be grounded shortly, and I turned out to be right.
When Patricia got home from work, she said that many of the Puerto Ricans she worked with were shocked, but that many of them were actually happy that it had happened, and thought that we had it coming. Their resentment of the country that had provided them with a higher standard of living than any of their neighbors for decades quickly came to the fore. As Mark Twain said, a dog will not bite the hand that feeds him — this is the principle difference between a man and a dog.
The Telegraph article already has over 2,000 comments, many of them as vile as what the article complained about.
So you finally support Puerto Rican independence?
So Mike, do you think Puerto Rico, being a territory of the US, is why 9/11 happened? Perhaps 7/7 was because the Bermuda isn’t independent? I’m just trying to figure out how your mind ticks, since the Puerto Rico Independence Party has what? 2 to 5% support of Puerto Ricans.
When did I not support Puerto Rican independence?
The second worst thing we did to Cuba was to not annex it when we had the chance.
As for Puerto Rico, cut ’em loose, and in a decades or two they’ll have settled in economically somewhere between the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua. And funny how so many independence advocates seem to not actually live there, but in New York or Miami or really white places like Berkeley or Madison or Cambridge.
I’d never suggest that America “got what it deserved” on 9/11, it’s always tragic when innocent people are killed. But the reality is that the US has waged war in so many countries around the world since the end of WW2 it was certain she would create enemies, and that one day one of those enemies would strike back on US soil.
No doubt just voicing that reality will in some peoples eyes make me “anti-American”, but what is this “anti-American” thing anyway? The Brits don’t go around crying about people being anti-British, the Canadians don’t whine about all the anti-Canadianism in the world, ditto for the Japanese and Germans, why is it always Americans who complain that the rest of the world doesn’t like them?
the reality is that the US has waged war in so many countries around the world since the end of WW2 it was certain she would create enemies, and that one day one of those enemies would strike back on US soil.
To think that we were attacked because we have “waged war in so many countries around the world since the end of WW2” is, with all due respect, lunacy. We were attacked because we are the vanguard of western values, which the Islamists despise, and they see us as the main barrier to their totalitarian dreams of world domination. And that also doesn’t excuse all of the hatred of America in Britain.
I would note that the usual suspects never seemed to have a problem with all of the wars that the Soviet Union waged around the world. Or the wars that the Arab world makes on Israel, or each other.
American’s don’t go around hijacking airplanes and flying them into skyscrapers.
American’s also are not rioting in the streets like the British. Oh, and about those Canadians, there’s a reason they don’t complain.
But hey, it was a nice try bashing Americans. Enjoy your hate.
Here we see deployed what James Lileks so masterfully called “the fulcrum of the ‘but'” — followed immediately by
I, for one, wear it as a badge of honor. And the kind of “Americans who complain that the rest of the world doesn’t like them” are nearly always the kind of Americans who want us to be more like the rest of the world, in the worst ways possible.
The Brits don’t go around crying about people being anti-British
It is worth noting that there are a lot of people who are anti-British. It’s been a fad for more than half a century to blame a considerable portion of the Third World’s ills on colonialism, that is, the taking of territory and subjugation of their inhabitants by the European powers leading up to the First World War. The UK was during that period the largest and perhaps most successful colonizing power. So naturally it was the biggest target. This is relevant because even now, colonialism is blamed for the ills of various places, like Zimbabwe, that seek to redirect blame elsewhere.
As an aside, I’m not British so I don’t get worked up over people who hate Brits. But it does seem rather irrational to judge Brits as having some sort of problem just because the anti-British don’t happen to hate me as much.
“It is to the Mohammedans, the Buddhists, and the cannibals–to the under-developed, the undeveloped, and the not-to-be-developed cultures–that the Capitalist United States of America is asked to apologize for her skyscrapers, her automobiles, her plumbing, and her smiling, confident, untortured, un-skinned-alive, un-eaten young men!
…It is not for her flaws that the United States of America is hated, but for her virtues–not for her weaknesses, but for her achievements–not for her failures, but for her success–her magnificent, shining, life-giving success.”
~ Ayn Rand (1965)
1965. Sigh. That was a long time ago. I dimly recall what American culture was like back then. Younger people have no idea. They have been taught nothing but shame and apologetics for the last 40 years or so.
Back then Americans, and Westerners in general, knew that our culture was superior to any other on Earth. Now we’re supposed to be ashamed that we have a higher standard of living than Zimbabwe.
It is interesting that people in the Uk will often think the only good war the USA fought was the one that saved them from the Germans.
While reading the comments at just about any UK publication triggers the gag reflex, they are foreigners so I don’t really care about what they say other than it makes me less likely to support helping them in the future.
What really bothers me is what some Americans say about what happened on 9-11. Strangely enough it closely parallels the comments in the linked article. It is one thing to be a 9-11 truther or think that America deserved 9-11 but the people who hold these beliefs seem to be unable to express them in anything but the most offensive way possible.
The cosmopolitans of the United States, the self-identifying ‘citizens of the world’, take the lead in production of anti-american propaganda. They don’t fit in with fellow Americans and take comfort in an imagined membership in a transatlantic class-aristocracy. They feel more at home in London than Dallas.
Of course when their fellow citizens of the world try to kill them because they are still Americans, the cosmos are quick to wave the flag and say “save me!”
wodun:
I saw a YouTube video earlier featuring footage of the people who jumped from the towers. Many of the comments were utterly revolting. Besides the usual nonsense about how we got what we deserved, some even made fun of the jumpers.
I don’t even want to think about how many of those commenters were American.
I wonder how different things would have been after 9-11 if the American left didn’t lead the rest of the world in creating anti-American sentiment. Country before party indeed.
Andrew wrote:
“But the reality is that the US has waged war in so many countries around the world since the end of WW2 it was certain she would create enemies, and that one day one of those enemies would strike back on US soil.”
Here’s one example of the problem with that idea-Fifteen of the Nineteen hijackers were from a country the US had never invaded, but in fact had vigorously defended from invasion in 1990-91. The simple fact is that these men were imbued with the idea that the US would be a weak-willed pushover, compared to the USSR. They were imbued with a dream of reviving the Moslem version of the Roman Empire, to be spread over the world. Those who would like to follow them are imbued with that goal still.
They assault us because, like so many reactionaries against industrial society, they see the US as the last defense against their particular brand of reaction. That means to rally the faithful to them, they want to show that the US could be hit with impunity. They assumed a few cruise missiles would be the biggest result. They believed they had permission from God for this.
Andrew, you are retailing the spread of the idea that the US invaded, when it in fact opposed the reaction of “the socialist camp” against the needed market freedoms of industrial society around the world. Not consistently enough, mind you, but more and better than anyone else. That we opposed this agrarian reaction from the socialist camp does not mean we were the bad guys. Agrarian cultures *will* die. Only if the US defends industrial society will their people have anywhere to go for the wealth to survive.
Cease the multicultural drivel. Using the ideas of a dead socialist camp does nothing but try to raise that ghost at the feast, just because it was prepared by Gramscian “long march through the institutions” campaigns. In fact the feast participants are Islamists who would gladly slaughter the atheists in “the socialist camp”.
With respect Rand. If you think the involvement of the US in the Middle East over the last few decades in the support of Israel has not influenced the attitude that Arabic people have towards the US I think we’ll at least have to share the lunacy honours.
US involvement has created bitterness towards the US, just as 9/11 has fueled anger in the US towards Muslims.
To answer my own question: A couple of months ago Rand did a post on the ignorance of a some Americans on what’s commemorated on the 4th of July. If you think Americans understanding of their own history is bad, Americans understanding of the rest of the world and how it sees America is almost beyond belief, as the comments in reply to what I said earlier demonstrate. Too many Americans see the rest of the world in one dimension, they don’t seem to understand it’s complexity, the multiplicity of views and the simple fact that not liking one aspect of America does not make a person an America hater. It’s this tunnel vision that separates Americans from the other nationalities I mentioned, I can not like British football hooligans without other Britons seeing me as anti-British, I can dislike Japanese whaling, without the Japanese suddenly concluding I’m anti-Japanese, but if you find fault with some aspect of US foreign policy, Americans immediately and enthusiastically rush to the conclusion that you’re an American hater (eg Leland’s comment).
This us against them mindset is also seen in other peoples; the French, Israelis, and amongst Palestinians and other Arabs, I seems to come with highly nationalist (or patriotic) populations.
Tom, so they felt some empathy towards their brothers in other lands that had been killed or evicted with US support. Empathy for those outside of your own nation’s boerders does happen you know, afterall isn’t that why the US invaded Iraq? Empathy with the people of Kuwait?
Tom, guess with whom Andrew has empathy?
Too many Americans see the rest of the world in one dimension, they don’t seem to understand it’s complexity, the multiplicity of views and the simple fact that not liking one aspect of America does not make a person an America hater.
Andrew, I’ll delegate that task to you. You go ahead and feel the complexity for the rest of us. As for me, I feel my energies are better put to other uses than to “understand” (in your sense, I’m pretty sure I understand them just fine) a world of ignorant people.
Andrew.
If you think Israel shouldn’t exist, just say so. Because that’s what support of Israel is all about. Without US support, Israel wouldn’t exist for long. And that is what has the Islamists pissed off about American involvement in the Middle East.
Andrew W – It’s a lot simpler than that, and apparently not enough American politicians and/or their advisers have read Machiavelli.
Your enemies should fear you. Arab nations know that the USA (or the UK, or France, for that matter) could turn the entire Ummah into a sea of radioactive glass in an hour. They also know that we will not do it. They knew before starting that the USAF could respond to 9/11 by converting the palace of the King of Mordor to a pile of rubble. They also knew that the USAF would not be ordered to do it.
The problem we have in this war, right now, is that the chattering classes think far too much about enemy casualties. Had this bunch been in power in the 1940s, we would all be speaking either German or Japanese.
The millions of their brothers that the US has saved everywhere from southeastern Europe to Indonesia, from genocide and natural disaster, seem to have escaped their attention.
But yes, we have our blind spots, the most dangerous of which is failing to recognize that the royal family and religious aristocracy of the nation that produced “15 of the 19” is the most dangerous enemy the US has had since the leadership of the Confederacy, and for similar reasons. May the KSA prove as inept and doomed to failure as was the CSA.
Andrew W Says:
“With respect Rand. If you think the involvement of the US in the Middle East over the last few decades in the support of Israel has not influenced the attitude that Arabic people have towards the US I think we’ll at least have to share the lunacy honours.”
That is certainly true. But we get little recognition for also giving $billions to the Palestinians over the years as well as forcing Israel to make numerous concessions since their founding.
What should we do, throw Israel under the bus and let the Muslims try and exterminate them? Would that really change their views about American culture?
“Too many Americans see the rest of the world in one dimension, they don’t seem to understand it’s complexity, the multiplicity of views and the simple fact that not liking one aspect of America does not make a person an America hater.”
It is easy enough to flip that around and say that too many people from the other continents don’t understand America. It is always amazing to hear the crazy stereotypes and conspiracy theories that people have about the USA and its citizens.
I guess haters gonna’ hatehate.
Bah! Bah typos!
In the end, it all comes back to the Jews! Why, if Israel weren’t so stubborn and unwilling to compromise, there could be peace in the Middle East! Israel wants to exist and to live in peace. Its enemies want Israel to not exist and the Jews to be dead. Why can’t Israel just compromise by giving them half of their territory and let their enemies kill half of the Jews? Then, next year, they can compromise again. Lather, rinse and repeat until there are no Jews left. Then there will be peace in the Middle East just as there was before the founding of Israel.
(Do I really need the sarcasm tag?)
That seems to be the mindset of those who resent our support for Israel. It’s just another manifestation of anti-Semitism. It’s a seemingly high-minded version of an ancient hatred.
It’s dispiritingly hilarious to see that (some significant fraction of) Puerto Ricans consider themselves an “other” to the United States.
After all, they’re American citizens, and they’re not choosing individually to renounce that in any number, as far as I know.
Nor is there a significant independence movement, to my knowledge.
We win, they lose. Everybody else can jump in the lake.
Am I being nuanced enough?
Indeed, Ken, winning is the best exit strategy of all.