RE: US Reputation (RE: Arab World Stunned by Baghdad's Fall)

From: Keith Elis (hagbard@ix.netcom.com)
Date: Tue Apr 15 2003 - 07:39:57 MDT

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    Amara Graps:

    "In my opinion, its reputation was already sliding downhill, but the
    reputation meter pegged the end of the dial during the last weeks and
    months and had to be calibrated at the next decimeter scale.

    "Meaning that I have heard words and seen actions new to me in my years
    (five now) of living outside of the U.S. Not only words and actions of
    foreigners' opinions (you can guess, but I can tell you if you want),
    but some U.S. people's opinions as well. Strong enough concern over the
    U.S. government's actions these last months that those U.S. scientists
    (astronomers) are making serious plans to move out." 

    ---
I, too, lived in Europe (four years in Frankfurt, GE) only recently
moving back to the States. Just as in the States, European cities are
filled with various stripes of sophisticates, from very liberal greenies
to conservative, power-tie scrooges and all the shades in between, and
all with different opinions. While I did notice that you can't throw an
elbow on the S-bahn without hitting a university student with nasty
things to say about the US, the people who live in the towns and hamlets
of the countryside are often quite pro-US. Whether this stems from the
presence of US military bases in Germany (which usually contribute a
great deal to nearby economies) or perhaps to an older median age (they
remember post WWII reconstruction), I don’t know. Regardless, just as
most people in the US supported the President's goals in Iraq, most
people in Germany and France supported their governments' position on
the matter. If anything, we should be asking ourselves why, in
democratic societies, does policy guide the collective opinion, rather
than the other way around? Or does it?
Reputation is a blend of action and interpretation. Integrity can look
like stupidity sometimes. Stupidity can look like arrogance. Arrogance
can look like greed. And so on. The reputation of the US has as much to
do with its actions as it does with the interpretations of those actions
made by others. I can't say I'm convinced the collective Franco-German
interpretation is accurate. It's surely not objective.
Keith

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