Breathe

Why We Are Fought

Washington Correspondent, Justin Webb, has been sitting too close to the Bush administration's War hoots, hollars, and Yosemite Sam-like excited gunfire when he wrote his article "Death to US: Anti-Americanism examined."

No, he doesn't examine the many international surveys conducted by organizations like the Pew Research Center that conclude that it is "policy not culture" that creates anti-Americanism, nor does he take into consideration the recent Iraqi polls that indicate the people view us as occupiers not liberators and want us gone. What he does do, however, is take the red white and blue temperature in Venezuela and France...yes France. (I thought America's freedom fries culture was just a right-wing joke. Perhaps Washington, correspondents and all, are still upset that they were right about Iraq.)

He cites examples directly referring to the "regime" of Venezuela and French intellectuals--seriously though I think people stopped listening to real intellectuals in the 18th century--and comes to the grand conclusion that is all centers "around intense dislike of what America is--not what it does."

Hmm, I could of swore it was because of our total apathy toward history, our "backing of authoritarian regimes," our interference with any sort of local democracy, our economic blockades, our timeless support for Israel, and overall double standards that helped finance people like Pinochet, Bin Ladin, Saddam, and the one and only Shah of Iran (just to name a few).

And as far as those French Intellectuals, I am starting to like that Huber Beuve-Mery:
"The Americans represent a real danger for France, different from the one posed by Germany or the one with which the Russians may - in time - threaten us. The Americans may have preserved a cult of Liberty but they do not feel the need to liberate themselves from the servitude which their capitalism has created. "

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