What country is this, where the people hate Americans and even their public officials call us "bastards" and "idiots"? North Korea? Iran? France? Germany?
If you've already followed the links, you
know. It's CANADA. The one country that's most culturally
similar to the United States, the one whose people have long shared common
experiences with Americans. The one country whose people routinely travel
to the U.S. and mingle with Americans. The one country whose people receive
American news and entertainment broadcasts (both TV and radio) - who know
better than anyone else what Americans are about. They think we're
evil bastards.
What do you think a Russian, who's never been to America; never met an American; and never seen a U.S. news broadcast nor heard the Liddy radio show, thinks? How about Germans? Pakistanis? Chinese?
Even Pakistani President Musharraf, a staunch Bush ally, thinks things need to be done differently: Musharraf said Pakistan "is succeeding in combating terrorism," but the world still needs to address the underlying problems associated with the rise in "extremism, militancy and terrorism ... because if we don't do that, we may be winning the battle against terrorism, maybe we won't succeed in the war against terrorism which happens to be the core issues of political disputes, poverty and illiteracy."
Well, as Bush keeps saying, we now have a global economy. Really, not that we ever didn't... from its earliest days, this country has depended on trade with the rest of the world. We cannot survive without the cooperation of friendly foreign nations.
More importantly, our security depends on cooperation with other nations. Terrorists operate on an international basis. They transit through Europe, and potentially via Canada and Mexico. If a Belgian border guard thinks Americans are arrogant bastards, is he going to be quite so careful to review the baggage on that Brussels=>New York flight?
Our military tasks in Afghanistan and Iraq have been made far more difficult by the reluctance of nearby nations to allow our use of their territory. (admittedly a Gore administration wouldn't have done any better - but it wouldn't have risked offending even more of our allies)
