It is safe to say that the elections in Iraq caught some folks by surprise: Arab dictators come to mind, German media, etc., etc....
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The Debate
- "In much of Europe's public debate, the true meaning of human rights has degenerated into a tool that gives anti-Americanism an aura of legitimacy. The real, horrendous human-rights violations in the Middle East, North Korea, China, Cuba, etc., are largely ignored or relegated to news blurs on the back pages. For front-page coverage, you need an American angle." ---The Wall Street Journal
- "I discovered that European social democracy, too, was a kind of fundamentalism, rigid and doctrinaire, yielding what Swedish writer Johan Norberg calls "one-idea states"—nations where an echo chamber of insular elites calls the shots, where monochrome media daily reiterate statist mantras and shut out contrarian views, and where teachers and professors systematically misrepresent the U.S. (millions of Europeans believe that free public schools, unemployment insurance, and pensions are unknown in America). The more I saw of the European elites' chronic distrust of the public, and the public's habitual deference to those elites, the fonder I grew of the nasty, ridiculous rough-and-tumble of American democracy..." ---Bruce Bawer
- "In the European media as well as on the public stage, prizes and publicity go overwhelmingly to Americans who serve as witnesses against their own government and nation. (...) The defense mechanism is simple enough: "After all, they are saying this, too, so how can we be accused of anti-Americanism?" A similar phenomenon attaches itself to Israel, where "post-" or anti-Zionist spokesmen are given top billing in the European media." ---Josef Joffe
- "The point is to be aware that for many of the foreigners issuing what they claim to be "simply constructive criticism", the evidence shows that criticizing America is all they do, criticizing America is all they ever have done, and criticizing America is all they ever will do." ---Erik Svane, Americans Anonymous
- "To get an impression, take a look at David's Medienkritik, a Web log in English dedicated, among other things, to exposing biased reporting on the United States in the German media. Be it stories about the war in Iraq, the conduct of U.S. soldiers abroad, American reservations regarding the Kyoto Protocol and the International Criminal Court or even the Katrina disaster, more often than not the German public is presented with a distorted picture. There are laudable exceptions. But generally the blows are low, and the public is left to form its opinion base on half-truths and false analyses." ---Julian Knapp
- "Negative sentiments and views have been driven not only - or even primarily - by what the United States does, but rather by an animus against what Europeans have believed that America is. While the politics, style, and discourse of the Bush terms - and of President Bush as a person - have undoubtedly exacerbated anti-American sentiment among Europeans and fostered a heretofore unmatched degree of unity between elite and mass opinion in Europe, they are not anti-Americanism's cause. Indeed, a change to a center-left administration in Washington, led by a Democratic president, would not bring about its abatement, let alone its disappearance." ---Andrei Markovits
- "Anti-Americanism is hypocrisy at its finest. You can spend your evening catching the latest episode of "24" and then complain about Guantanamo the next morning. You can claim that the Americans have themselves to blame for terrorism, while at the same time calling for tougher restrictions on Muslim immigration to Germany. You can call the American president a mass murderer and book a flight to New York the next day. You can lament the average American's supposed lack of culture and savvy and meanwhile send off for the documents for the Green Card lottery. Not a day passes in Germany when someone isn't making the wildest claims, hurling the vilest insults or spreading the most outlandish conspiracy theories about the United States. But there's no risk involved and it all serves mainly to boost the German feeling of self-righteousness." ---C.C. Malzahn
- "The protests against nuclear weapons, for instance, concentrated on American weapons. The anti-war rallies were against American-led wars. The anti death penalty campaign focused on Texas. A pattern was emerging and has never seriously been altered. A pattern of willingness to condemn America for the tiniest indiscretion - or to magnify those indiscretions - while leaving the murderers, dictators, and thieves who run other nations oddly untouched." ---Justin Webb
- The fundamental role of anti-Americanism in Europe in general, and particularly among those on the Left, is to absolve themselves of their own moral failings and intellectual errors by heaping them onto the monster scapegoat, the United States of America. For stupidity and bloodshed to vanish from Europe, the U.S. must be identified as the singular threat to democracy (contrary to every lesson of actual history)." ---Jean-François Revel
- "In five years there will be a different President and Iraq will likely be pacified. That would naturally have impacts on the strength of the resentments that have fixed themselves onto certain individuals in the present situation. But beneath the surface smolder the long-burning embers of latent anti-Americanism. It has a long tradition and will remain, also when President Bush is no longer in office and Palestine is peaceful." ---Lutz Erbring
- "A writer for the German weekly Der Spiegel told me during the Iraq debate not to take offense at the crude anti-American covers of the magazine such as the ugly, bearded, drooling Rambo figure it used to show the typical GI in Iraq. 'We're just trying to please our million readers,' he explained." ---Jeff Gedmin
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Seeing that the US and Japan (who is behaving like a true ally to the US) both are the largest contributors to the World Bank and both support the nomination, who really cares what Europe thinks? One could just as easily say the Europe is also being unilateralist (especially France) in opposing just about everything the Bush administration does.
Posted by: Jason Frank | March 20, 2005 at 11:45 AM
(OT) Quit calling Americans fat, you obese krauts. ;-) It's official, GERMANS ARE FATTER THAN AMERICANS.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050316/ap_on_he_me/fit_supersize_eu_6
Seriously, people everywhere need to get off their fat asses, quit eating crap and lose the weight.
Posted by: Lou Minatti | March 20, 2005 at 03:21 PM
@ Lou
Thanks for the link. I have been arguing this for a while when Germans talk about "Fat Amis" that people in glass houses etc.... These stats will help but the answer will be the same: "Europeans are only fat because they eat(or are forced to eat!) an American diet!" Puke. Europeans are not responsible for anything.
Posted by: Doughnut Boy Andy | March 20, 2005 at 07:41 PM
@Doughnut Boy Andy
I think we must be talking to the same people. Blame it on McDonalds, as if all that cheese and sausage has nothing to do with the problem. What about that 1000+ calorie döner kebab?! Pommes anybody? If it's not a subconscious form of prejudice, I'm lost for an explanation. Can somebody help me out?
As for all the voting in the middle east, I think it's been played down quite effectively by the media. It might make Dubya look good. I hope Condoleeza decides to run for prez. She'll keep the pressure on the despots. I have this feeling they are just trying to survive Dubya.
Posted by: James W. | March 21, 2005 at 01:19 AM
Part of it is diet, of course. But I think there is a direct link between obesity and the types of jobs we have. People historically earned a living by the sweat off their brow. It wasn't until very recent times that people earned a living by working in the "service industry". Most people in western countries now work at desk jobs, or in other places that require very little physical activity. America got a jump start on everyone else when it comes to these "service" jobs, and now the other western countries are catching up to us. Now most of us have to find time FOR physical activity.
Posted by: Lou Minatti | March 21, 2005 at 01:33 AM
the fattest people on earth live in the usa!
Some look like whales - i was shocked when I saw that, you will find overweight people in europe but very rarely "Fat-balls" like you see them anywhere and anytime on the streets in the usa!
Posted by: | March 21, 2005 at 01:56 PM
Since the topic of which country with millions of inhabitants is on average more obese is - though no doubt amusing - somewhat below the normal level of discourse in the comments section here, this might be a good place to follow up on a discussion that took place a few weeks ago concerning the bombing of Dresden. I just finished reading "Dresden: Tuesday, February 13, 1945" by Frederick Taylor, available in English at Amazon.de for €13.50 and in German for €26.00 - both versions shipping withing 24 hours. It is absolutely essential reading for anyone interested in Dreseden. I couldn't put it down.
Posted by: beimami | March 21, 2005 at 03:49 PM
@beimami
By the look of the book reviews on the amazon site it promises to be a good read. Sold!
Posted by: Doughnut Boy Andy | March 21, 2005 at 04:24 PM