AHEAD: SIX DECADES OF HUMILIATION?

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Thu, 30 Jun 2005 19:54:20 +1000 (EST)

AHEAD: SIX DECADES OF HUMILIATION

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AHEAD: SIX DECADES OF HUMILIATION By Ted Rall

Wed Jun 29, 6:01 PM ET

 

 

 

NEW YORK--The world hates us more than ever, according

to a new Pew Research poll of 16,000 citizens in 15

countries. Most Canadians think Americans are

exceptionally rude. The Chinese say we're violent and

greedy. Nearly half of Turks--up from 32 percent a

year ago--say they dislike Americans as individuals

and America as a nation, according to the survey.

Muslims have a " quite negative hostility toward

America, " says Pew president Andrew Kohut. Even among

our traditional allies, he says, the United States

" remains broadly disliked. "

 

 

The reason for our declining popularity is no mystery:

Bush's unjustified, illegal war against Iraq. But

Iraq, Bush's doctrine of preemptive warfare and

instances of prisoners being tortured and even

murdered aren't completely unprecedented. Cheney's

neoconservatives are merely the latest executors of an

aggressive foreign policy that has long prompted fear,

hatred and resentment among the leaders and citizens

of other nations. Beginning with Theodore Roosevelt's

brutal suppression of Filipino insurgents at the dawn

of the 20th century, continuing with the holocaust of

two million Vietnamese civilians under LBJ and Nixon's

carpet bombs and recently exemplified by a series of

bullying adventures against such defenseless nations

as Grenada, Panama and Afghanistan, the U.S. has

become, perhaps to its surprise, the biggest danger to

peace and stability on the planet.

 

Many Americans, still taking pride in the memorable

image of " Gift of USA " flag logos on bags of grain

being tossed to starving Africans, find it difficult

to accept the role of international pariah. But the

truth is that many people are as scared of us as they

were of Germany and Japan in 1939.

 

Ah, irony. Our rep has gone down the toilet with the

Koran, but things are looking up for the Axis powers

we defeated in World War II.

 

Germany, nearly recovered from the economic shock of

reunification and a lead partner in the European

Community, is lobbying for a permanent seat on the

United Nations security council. " Because of

[Germany's role in Iraq, Afghanistan and the

Balkans], " Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder told Bush

at the White House on June 28, " we have earned certain

rights. " Bush, seeking payback for Schroeder's lack of

support for the Iraq war, is said to be cool to the

German bid. Nevertheless, bringing up the question

demonstrates Germany's newfound self-confidence. As

the German weekly Der Spiegel commented: " Normally it

is only superpowers who express themselves--and their

rights--so aggressively. "

 

Twenty countries, including India, Japan and Brazil,

want to join the prestigious security council.

Controversy continues to dog Japan's efforts to be

recognized as a major military as well as economic

power, mainly due to its refusal to come to terms with

its part in World War II. Japanese textbooks gloss

over atrocities in China, and the government has never

issued a formal apology. Prime Minister Junichiro

Koizumi continues to pay honors at a shrine to Japan's

war dead, including known war criminals. But Bush

supports just one addition to the Big Five: Japan.

 

Germany and Japan's remarkable comeback since 1945

holds an instructive lesson for the United States

today. During the last six decades both countries

recovered from total defeat, massive loss of life and

infrastructure and the humiliation of occupation by

concentrating first on economic revival, then building

a political society designed to cause as little

offense as possible to the international community and

finally, since the end of the Cold War, asserting

themselves militarily but only in peace-keeping

missions which even their former enemies couldn't

openly oppose. Now both are poised to resume the roles

they played before they launched their empire-building

military campaigns, no longer as expansionist

aggressors but as powerful nations worthy of trust and

respect.

 

Particularly in Germany, every postwar generation was

taught about the evils of militarism and the horrors

their parents and grandparents had carried out in the

name of God and country. Pacifism is the norm; Nazism

is reviled. Even in Japan, where official signs of

contrition haven't been forthcoming, only a few

nostalgic nutcases yearn for the glorious days of the

Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. No one's

afraid of the Axis anymore.

 

Now the U.S. is the sole, charter member of its own

Axis of Evil: invading and threatening invasions,

breaking arms treaties willy-nilly, kidnapping and

murdering foreign citizens without cause, refusing to

abide by the Geneva conventions. But that will change

someday--whether we're forced to change, as were

Germany and Japan, or whether we choose a different

path on our own. What's daunting is how much time--and

humility--it will take for the rest of the world to

trust us as much as they trust Germany and Italy.