Ivo Skoric on Tue, 9 Jul 2002 18:41:01 +0200 (CEST)


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[Nettime-bold] Re: Safire: "Myth America 2002"


Saphire would prosper in communist media. I think I said that once 
already. But the fact that he is also prospering in democracy, its 
most worrisome. Of course that all of his myth-reality pairs can be 
turned around, depending on who is talking. When Saphire is 
talking, however, one thinks that White House hired a wrong press 
secretary. Saphire patronizes Powell, offers a 'vision' in which 
America infringes on sovereignty of other nations for the greater 
good of the whole humanity, yet it questions any project that can 
infringe on its sovereignty, justified by being "seized with an 
intelligently moralistic, Wilsonian vision of peace with its necessary 
component of freedom." In a non-Saphirean reality the U.S. 
dropped 265,000 bombs on Iraq, poisoning its children with DU and 
alienating its population from those proposed lofty goals and then 
with economic sanctions speeding up Saddam's "treadmill of 
despotism". 

"Yasir Arafat may be elected its president to attend formal 
ceremonies with Israel's president whatsisname, but power would 
rest in a parliament with parties that would elect a prime minister. 
This chief executive, strengthened by an independent judiciary 
and free press, would extract the "painful compromises" that Prime 
Minister Ariel Sharon has said Israel is prepared to make after the 
terror war ends." - Saphire dubbed that a 'reality'. I doubt he is 
unintelligent. But there is nothing further from the myth than this 
sentence, I hope history would prove me wrong and him right.
 
Myth: America is morally better than the rest of the world.
Reality: It is not.

ivo

Date sent:      	Mon, 8 Jul 2002 13:58:22 -0400
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From:           	BConley@USHMM.ORG
Subject:        	Safire: "Myth America 2002"
To:             	JUSTWATCH-L@LISTSERV.ACSU.BUFFALO.EDU

cross-posting of commentary only

Operating under the assumption that something can be learned by reading
articles one disagrees with (I hope not to shock anyone on the list into
issuing complaints to higher authorities), I am posting W. Safire's
interpretation of American foreign policy, which is  *perhaps* a bit at
odds with European (among others) interpretations:


"...as Europe temporized, we led NATO's defeat of Serbia's takeover of the
Balkans...Saddam Hussein has been jerking around the United Nations for
seven years...Brits and Turks may reluctantly help us, but European
handwringers and Arab monarchs want a free ride...America is the place
seized with an intelligently moralistic, Wilsonian vision of peace with its
necessary component of freedom."
-------------------------------------------------------
New York Times
                                                                            
 July 8, 2002                                                               
 Myth America 2002                                                          
 By WILLIAM SAFIRE                                                          
                                                                            
                                                                            
                                                                            
 LONDON                                                                     
                                                                            
                                                                            
 Here are a handful of myths that cause what's left of Europe's left to     
 misperceive U.S. foreign policy:                                           
                                                                            
                                                                            
 Myth 1: America is temporarily dominated by self-serving isolationists who 
 reject treaties designed by sensible Lilliputians to tie down the          
 superpower Gulliver.                                                       
                                                                            
                                                                            
 Reality: In the past decade, the U.S. saved Europe from becoming an        
 economic vassal to Iraq, which was on its way to conquering Kuwait and     
 Saudi Arabia. A few years later, as Europe temporized, we led NATO's       
 defeat of Serbia's takeover of the Balkans. Recently, we drove Islamist    
 terrorists, who threaten Europe as much as America, from their training    
 bases in Afghanistan. Is it too much to ask to protect our 250,000 troops  
 defending freedom abroad, along with aid workers and journalists, from a   
 treaty enabling publicity-hungry prosecutors to harass them?               
                                                                            
                                                                            
 Myth 2: (flip side of first myth) We're interventionist bullies, with no   
 regard for the sovereignty of countries whose threatening leaders are      
 better dealt with diplomatically.                                          
                                                                            
                                                                            
 Reality: Saddam Hussein has been jerking around the United Nations for     
 seven years, ignoring his surrender agreement and buying off French and    
 Russian defenders while building a nuclear and germ-warfare capability for 
 delivery by North Korean missiles or, more likely, through terrorist       
 cutouts. Sanctions, dumb and smart, have dismally failed; the danger of    
 nuclear blackmail grows to head-in-the-sand Parisians and Berliners as     
 well as vulnerable New Yorkers. Brits and Turks may reluctantly help us,   
 but European handwringers and Arab monarchs want a free ride.              
                                                                            
                                                                            
 Myth 3: The Bush administration, with its disdain for treaties, does not   
 understand the nuances of dealing with nuclear-armed Russia, which must    
 never be allowed to feel humiliated.                                       
                                                                            
                                                                            
 Reality: Lo and behold, when the U.S. withdrew as promised from the        
 outdated ABM treaty, the clear skies did not fall. Contrary to all         
 European fears and dire predictions, Vladimir Putin was induced to put the 
 best face on the inevitability of a U.S. missile defense against rogue     
 nations and terrorists. In return for this (and, mistakenly, for being     
 allowed to get away with secret sales of nuclear know-how to Iran), Russia 
 is allowing us to give it $10 billion or more to safely reduce its         
 unneeded nuclear stockpile. No humiliation; only relief all around.        
                                                                            
                                                                            
 Myth 4: Europe holds the high moral ground in providing aid to the         
 Palestinian "resistance," while Bush, in thrall to the Jewish lobby,       
 refuses to force Israel to abandon its "occupation."                       
                                                                            
                                                                            
 Reality: America has broken free of the decade-long romance with a         
 terrorist and is now trying a radical new idea of encouraging Palestinians 
 to set up the first democratic Arab state. Yasir Arafat may be elected its 
 president to attend formal ceremonies with Israel's president whatsisname, 
 but power would rest in a parliament with parties that would elect a prime 
 minister. This chief executive, strengthened by an independent judiciary   
 and free press, would extract the "painful compromises" that Prime         
 Minister Ariel Sharon has said Israel is prepared to make after the terror 
 war ends. This would demolish ?                                            
                                                                            
                                                                            
 Myth 5: America is in the clutches of hard-line, hard-nosed, bellicose     
 warrior-executives, while Europe is the continent of highminded            
 peace-seekers.                                                             
                                                                            
                                                                            
 Reality: America is the place seized with an intelligently moralistic,     
 Wilsonian vision of peace with its necessary component of freedom. Because 
 the old "realism" has failed in the Middle East, does it not make sense to 
 impose some idealism on the players? With new leaders freely elected in    
 the West Bank and Gaza, and with a federal government created after the    
 deposal of the dictatorship in Iraq, the Arab world would have its chance  
 to catch up with the rest of the world. The leap into the present might    
 fail while daring greatly, but the treadmill of more despotism leads       
 nowhere.                                                                   
                                                                            
                                                                            
 Myth 6: The political popularity of Colin Powell will enable State         
 Department worldliness to triumph over the Bush-Rumsfeld-Cheney cowboy     
 mentality, enabling Europe's multilateral impotence to harness American    
 superpower.                                                                
                                                                            
                                                                            
 Reality: Colin's a good soldier and political loyalist. If he were tempted 
 to threaten, Haig-like, to quit, he knows that Bush has Condi Rice waiting 
 in the wings. Powell will lose a few, win on occasion, but will stick      
 around through the next election. Rectifying a decade-old strategic error  
 and bringing Europe along to remake the world is too much fun.             
                                                                            


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