Toby Harnden is leaving his assignment as the Daily Telegraph's Washington bureau chief, on his way to become their Middle East correspondent. He's filed a last report from America, including this:
Americans had little choice but to rise to the challenge September 11 presented. But acting decisively has stirred the embers of anti-Americanism - among other governments and elites at least. Even more dangerous is the rise of "counter-Americanism", the doctrine that the United States has to be stopped, its goals frustrated and a counter-balance created.Posted by Alan at September 30, 2003 07:25 PMYet it is worth recognising the self-evident truth that America is a force for tremendous good in the world. Opposing it means opposing the universal values that Europeans first exported. Certainly, the United States has its faults. After all, it is an experiment still in progress. Mr Bush has many qualities as a president but he has needlessly antagonised allies, often as much by his dismissive manner as by the substance of policy.
None of this, however, justifies the tendency of so much of the world to define itself by the ways it is against America. Mr Bush once said that he didn't "do nuance". His fondness for the black and white encourages those who want to feel superior to see a caricature of the world's sole superpower rather than seek to fathom it.
But nuance should work both ways.
via The Telegraph (UK)
Tip via Andrew Sullivan