As usual, Victor Davis Hanson speaks the truth:
America should not gratuitously welcome such dislike; but we should not apologize for it either. Sometimes the caliber of a nation is found not in why it is liked, but rather in why it is not. By January 1, 1941, I suppose a majority on the planet — the Soviet Union, all of Eastern Europe, France, Italy, Spain, and even many elsewhere in occupied Europe, most of Latin America, Japan and its Asian empire, the entire Arab world, many in India — would have professed a marked preference for Hitler’s Germany over Churchill’s England.
Think about it. When Europe orders all American troops out; when Japan claims our textbooks whitewash the Japanese forced internment or Hiroshima; when China cites unfair trade with the United States; when South Korea says get the hell off our DMZ; when India complains that we are dumping outsourced jobs on them; when Egypt, Jordan, and the Palestinians refuse cash aid; when Canada complains that we are not carrying our weight in collective North American defense; when the United Nations moves to Damascus; when the Arab Street seethes that we are pushing theocrats and autocrats down its throat; when Mexico builds a fence to keep us out; when Latin America proclaims a boycott of the culturally imperialistic Major Leagues; and when the world ignores American books, films, and popular culture, then perhaps we should be worried. But something tells me none of that is going to happen in this lifetime.
At dinner last night, the sidekick and I were discussing a discussion about gun control over at another blog where we had both commented. After awhile, some Europeans came over and started commenting about America’s fascination with guns and how unsafe our country was, and so on, and so forth.
While I have nothing against Europe as a whole, it’s this holier-than-thou enlightened attitude that some Europeans have that frustrates me. In alot of ways, I’ve lost my desire to debate some of those topics.
The UN? Corrupt, but salvageable.
Iraq, we did the right thing.
Afghanistan, we did the right thing.
Re-electing George W. Bush, we did the right thing.
Gun Control? A firm grip, no more.
Our taxes? Too high.
As our esteemed Secretary of State said recently while in France:
“There cannot be an absence of moral content in American foreign policy. Europeans giggle at this, but we are not European, we are American, and we have different principles.”
I’m quite happy being an American, thanks.