Yes, I'm finally going there.

I'm posting twice on the same day, but I didn't want to ruin my happy Thanksgiving post with this one.

I went to a lecture tonight given by Ali Allawi, he was the minister of trade and defense secretary in Iraq for a period of time and has a book that just came out, The Occupation of Iraq: Winning the War and Losing the Peace. I was really impressed with him. He addressed a lot of the questions I have been struggling with in my head and actually articulated a platform that was very similar to the one that I had been piecing together myself. Here's a link to an article he wrote for one of England's major newspapers that received a lot of attention and praise for its ability to summarize and analyze the situation in Iraq:
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article2125419.ece

I went to the lecture with two friends, kind of bracing myself for yet another round of America bashing/Bush is the deveil and should be tried for war crimes speech. But that wasn't the focus of his talk at all. He spoke about the just war theory and examined whether this war fell into that category. The answer was, of course, yes and no. But his larger point was, it's too late now to talk about whether the war should have happened or not, because it did and it's too late to change that. The question we need to be more concerned with is, what are we going to do now? And he gave some good answers. He was very articulate and intelligent and well balanced. Clearly, the other members in the audience were expecting to go to a lecture that would fuel their "America is evil and hypocritical" viewpoint by the questions and digs they were asking him after the speech was over. But my view on the war isn't really what I want to talk about.

I have been asked what the British think about America by a few people. Everyone wants to know, "Is it true that they hate us?" I finally feel like I've been here long enough that I can answer that question. The answer is yes. Let me clarify. I haven't met a Brit yet who has been rude to me. When people find out I'm from Texas, they do make certain assumptions about my political beliefs that make me a little uncomfortable. However, it's not the Americans they hate. It's 1) President Bush and 2) America as a political/economic entity. They also dislike Tony Blair for being Bush's "puppet" and getting Britain involved in the war. The Brits have this air of superiority about them towards America. Whether it has to do with language (they speak it the "proper" way), beer (self explanatory) or the war (we don't use torture on prisoners of war). When it comes to the war, they are very passionate about the fact that it is an illegal, unjust war and that Bush wrongfully ignored the UN and the international community by invading Iraq. The other hot button issue here is Abu Gharaib and Guantanamo Bay and the 67,000 Iraqi prisoners the US is holding, many of whom have been held for years without a trial. That fact alone makes them look on America in disgust. European countries are also firmly against the death penalty, which is another reason they look down their noses on the US.

People in Britain actually mention the US a lot in general conversation. In class, at church, hanging out in the pub, I hear references all the time to "or as the Americans would say/do..." It's like they have somewhat of an inferiority complex and have to make fun of the US whenever they can. It's usually in good fun and I enjoy hearing it, but I just find it interesting because Americans don't really tend to make references to the British in every day conversation like they do about us. I think this is partly because, in general, Americans tend to know less and care less about other countries, and because we belong to such a big and powerful country, a country smaller than Texas is kind of culturally inconsequential to us. Our country is not saturated with foreign media the way other countries are with American movies, television shows and music. That's the other thing, people around the world consume the same media that we do in America. Our media fills their countries, and they love it, but at the same time hate it for the way that it is becoming so prominent in their cultures and dominating the market.

I don't know if I did a good job of painting a picture of how America is perceived by the English or not. One thing I'm realizing though is that America has a lot of power in the world. It's one country that everybody knows about, whether you're from India, Namibia, or Argentina, and everybody has an opinion about it. Because we are such a powerful country, people expect us to be on a higher level of morality and accountability than others, and right now we have definitely failed in meeting their expectations. It will be a long time before our credibility is restored in the international community. Those are my observations, love em or hate em, agree or disagree. It's ok. I'll let you know if they change as the months go by.