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ANTI-AMERICANISM ABROAD

For the holidays I thought I would pull into the archives of Newsweek long before Bob Woodward and the lefties arrived and took over the joint. Yes - Newsweek once really had great articles!

(excerpts from the June 10, 1957 issue)

Talking to an American in Paris one day last week, an important French jurist offered a wry observation:

"When you were giving France hundreds of millions of dollars, 'U.S. Go Home' signs were plastered everywhere. Today we get only a few millions and there are no incidents. But now you're giving Formosa hundreds of millions of dollars and you've got trouble in Taipeh!"

The Frenchman's remarks if paradoxical, were undeniably all too true. Ill will frequently has followed outpourings of American aid.

This ill will-sometimes violent, sometimes passive-spills over the front pages as "anti-Americanism." Often evidence of some deep-rooted animosity towards the United States and its citizens is read into the splash of a tomato against an American tourist's car in France, or into a dispute over air-base rentals in Morocco.

Dislike of Americans-Friendly View

When Americans are friendly, they can't understand why they are disliked by others. Last week Italian journalist Indro Montanelli writing in Milan's highly respected Il Nuovo Corriere della Sera, had this explanation:

"The whole of Europe is envious of America, envious of her power, her well being, of those thousands of miles of ocean which still protect her from the calamities to which we are directly exposed. With what pleasure even we who love Americans sometimes find ourselves thinking...'not even they, over there, can feel tranquil now.'



And the Americans do nothing to help us overcome this sentiment. On the contrary they do everything to aggravate it. Their papers, books and films unceasingly flaunt the theme of happy, easygoing life in America."



In the Middle East, nationalism provides explosive fuel for "anti-Americanism." President Eisenhower's doctrine to defend the area against Communism has won support from some political leaders. But among the masses, bad feelings are deepened by the unrelenting din of anti-American propaganda from Radio Cairo, heard throughout most of the Arab world. Cairo broadcasters, for example, seized upon last month's anti-American riot in Formosa as "evidence" that US soldiers are savages, intent on turning Formosa into a base for a new aggressive war. And whatever else they may think about Americans, Arabs still hold the U.S. responsible for creating and sustaining their archenemy, Israel.

Last week when an Italian youth dashed into ther U.S. Information Service and shouted "Death to Americans," and stabbed a librarian, no one suggested "anti-Americanism." Italians wagged their heads and said: "Poor boy. He must have been crazy."

Stripped of sound and fury America gets along with its neighbors better than any global power in history. Many of the jolts seem worse than they are because of an old American trait: Americans like to be liked.

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Envy, jealousy, hatred od Americans has existed for at least fifty years. The US is the scapegoat in the middle east. Bin Laden, whose nation is taken from savages combing their hair with Camel urine to a wealthy country funded by oil - resents, yes hates, the US the same way a spoiled child resents their parents for making their lifestyle sustainable.

Growing up and watching US movies-because your nation makes none and eating US foods and soft drinks, driving US and British cars, makes the ungrateful child a psychopath. Unable to fathom how to turn his nation and people into equivalents he chooses to resent all of it.

The more we give-the more we are hated. It is only when we wage war or act like petty savages that these people respect the USA.

After the Iraqi house cleaning - our relations with the middle east will never be better. Although it might help if at the same time we take half of our 1.2 billion aid to Israel (600 million) and rebuild Iraq after we are done.

Happy Holidays Everybody!

SDAI-Tech1