Condemning the USA is a symptom of subconsciously felt impotence.

Late for America’s birthday but still in time to consider. While perusing the international media one is forced to face the fact that the USA has a “bad press”. Defamatory talk regarding America is an accepted standard and its allegations are regarded as self-evident in certain circles. Doing the same would provoke censure if used to characterize a third world state. This has been the case for decades. The attitude thrives thanks to the cooperation of the Left and the extreme Right. It is therefore an oddity that most Americans whose weakness is to like to be liked, are surprised when they occasionally confront the facts they like to suppress. 

Pieces that do not follow the “party-line” that has become a convention are rare. This makes them interesting enough to give them exposure in a form that is accessible to the English speaking reader. Being associated with three countries that some like to blame for the world’s real and pretended troubles, it gives satisfaction to be able to share an “exception” to the habitual offensive fare.

For the Fourth of July, a certain Hermann Strittmacher published a piece whose original title (in English) was “Thank you America”. It is typical of the aforementioned “bad press” that at first, before reading it, your correspondent thought that the statement is going to be an ironic attack. 

Now to that slightly shortened “happy birthday card”.

“On July 4, 1777 cannons fired thirteen shots across the North Atlantic. The action gave notice of the independence of the original thirteen states of the new nation. Ever since then and almost without a pause, America has been the originator of military actions. This has not always been wise, voluntary or successful. Nevertheless, it had always been embedded in the US’ wish to put turbulence in order while the country remained guided by her commitment to liberty –the way she understood it at the time. 

Nowadays this comportment often results in the complaint that America acts as the world’s policeman. Regarding that, we Europeans would be better off to keep our mouth shut.

For instance, have we forgotten that the First World War could be won in a close finish by Western Europe only due to the logistical support of the intervening USA? Or: Have we thrown in history’s dust bin our recall of WW2 that, thanks to the USA’s “meddling”, it did not end with the victory of Nazi-Fascism?

Furthermore, can we Europeans, after we have been for centuries unable to erect a functioning community of nations in the Balkans - that is next door- the right to blame America? For what? For having twenty years ago intervened there to prevent an even greater massacre? May we criticize America although we are the architects of historical failures, and act as nitpickers and conflict-bound eternal complainers? 

The piece concludes in English “Thank you America, land of the free and land of the brave.”

The counter point comes from a personal letter. Alas, the writer is not a yahoo, has advanced degrees and a corresponding career. The case confirms that intelligent people can be political idiots. Especially abroad, neither Communism nor National Socialism would have scored as high if this would not be so.

After recommending an article to read about the PRC, the note continues,

“Regarding China I rather prefer them than the USA. With that people I have no problems but their policies are miserable. What is America? It is the place where the torture of prisoners is authorized by the state. It is the entity that is unwilling to sign the international protocol on the reduction of CO2 in the air. (N. B.: China has also refused to sign the Kyoto Protocol.) It is the country that (in the UN) vetoes every time the international resolutions that condemn Israel. It is also the country that can imagine the extension of democracy of their conception by the means of arms alone. This it does in populations that have a completely different identity, traditions, customs, religion, heritage and way of thinking. In that country a historically unprecedented shortsightedness prevails in the brains of politicians. Naturally, there the money and the bankers rule –for the time being. The fact that America supports with huge sums Israel whom she forgives everything is truly outrageous. Israel is the least democratic, most dictatorial state on earth (sic) and can be classified as a terrorist entity. Accordingly, she violates and ignores almost every norm that regulates international relations. Well, I think that history has already passed over the age of American primacy. At the very least, this process of surpassing has commenced a long time ago. Such developments unfold only gradually. In the final analysis, I gladly place my bets on China, India and one or two South American states to become the decisive movers of the future. For the time being, Africa remains a dark horse”.

The foregoing has been shared with the reader only reluctantly. By the rules of logic, the embarrassment is unwarranted. Nevertheless, emotionally the shame felt explains the instinctive inclination to file away the matter. That the source of the quoted diatribe and the writer share some accidental characteristics does not amount to an intellectually valid reason to contribute to an idiocy by protecting it with silence. Genuine patriotism is not measured by a person’s preparedness to ignore, in the name of an implied commitment, what is reprehensible, stupid or whatever. The true patriot expects from his own kind “more” and not “less” than he does from outsiders. 

The two testimonials quoted here indicate what those that cared to know have registered long ago. The transatlantic relationship is a patient that suffers from a malady. Unclear is only to what ailment –from a cold to a tumor- do the symptoms point. Here it might be added that expecting too much from America or blaming all the troubles of the world on her are both symptoms of an unstable relationship. These judgments also interlock. Those that like to start any diagnosis by blaming America demand of her the standards set by the high expectations that are projected on her. Once the bar is set high, knocking it down is a pre-programmed certainty. That failure is ammunition for the critical artillery barrage that is followed by the prediction of the hoped-for decline. Visceral and automatic anti-Americanism might also be an expression of the political impotence of its source.

Admittedly, the past record is not irrelevant when, in the search of a prorgnosis one assesses contemporary situations. Nevertheless, not thankfulness for services rendered in the 20th century should determine the liaison between Europe and the US. Much rather, what we need is an awareness of common interests and compatible institutions, as well as an appreciation of the interrelated traditions and cultures of the present. These considerations should determine for the zone stretching from the Pacific to the Urals the parameters of future links.