America has always been resented.

(and envied)

“As with pathological Bush-bashing, as with
ridiculous alarmism about global warming, as with true bigotry and hate directed at “social conservatives” and the Religious Right in particular, et cetera, ad nauseum…the most ridiculous and poor-quality stuff I simply don’t respond to these days; it’s more merciful just to avoid it.”

Yet,the person who complains does respond,. every simple time, with his/her own repetitive bashng – only changing the object of derision to be the Left,. Democrats, this site, any poster disagreed with, abt cinnebt dusagreed wuth ets.
Bash. Bash. Bash.

Not onw word about freedom or how it is perceived or experienced by real live people, the topic of the post..
Not one word .

Very telling.
VEry depressing.

If only those who presume to knwo betterled by example.

Somebody,
America has always been resented, but never by this much. Check out all the world surveys of attitudes about America. We’ve never been more despised than now.

If one makes no Attempt one never gets the chance to “PRACTICE” freedom.

Brutal seems easy, but most “most monstrous ever?”

Those on the left have actually began longing for the days of Saddam Hussein to return to the Iraqis so that he can murder and torture in private with no press watching it. That way the left can get back to their agenda of “Animal House” America.

Now, we’re the bully that people resent

Reality check. America has always been resented. If this is what should drive our foreign policy then once again…….its back to Isolationism and training our military with broom sticks.

Game over.

It’s disappointing that to hedge anything we must tend to hyperbole. … Shouldn’t this statement require some rigour before use?

As with pathological Bush-bashing, as with ridiculous alarmism about global warming, as with true bigotry and hate directed at “social conservatives” and the Religious Right in particular, et cetera, ad nauseum…the most ridiculous and poor-quality stuff I simply don’t respond to these days; it’s more merciful just to avoid it.

In the interest of quality control and improvement on this site, I’ll interject here a much better, well-written criticism of our foreign policy in general, as well as a well-aimed stab at the Bush administration that applies to Iraq as well as to here at home, such as with FEMA and Katrina. It’s by Mike Huckabee, who is critical of the Bush administration as well as being a Religious Right member who dispels a number of myths deeply cherished by the Usual Suspects. From an interview with him, here is what he says about our foreign policy and leadership, a hyperbole-free, much more rigorously constructed criticism than what you typically encounter here:

When we were all kids growing up in a neighborhood, chances are there was one kid in our neighborhood who was really good at everything: he made straight As, ran faster, jumped higher and threw the ball better. He was just good at everything. When that kid acted like it and spiked the ball at our feet, waved his A-plus in our faces and danced around us when he scored the touchdown, do you remember how you felt toward that kid?

When that kid did that to you, what did you feel deep down? Resentment? And what did you want? You wanted him to make a C. You wanted him to strike out. You wanted him to get tackled behind the line of scrimmage. Not because you really wanted his demise, it’s just that you wanted him to taste the turf so that he knew humility like you had to know it every time he shoved it in your face.

Take the same neighborhood and the same gifted kid, but this time instead of the kid rubbing your face in it, the kid is very thoughtful. When he sees that you really did your best and didn’t make the A on the spelling test, he says, “Hey, why don’t I come over and I’ll help you learn your spelling words.” And when he sees you struggling to hit the baseball, he says, “If you choke up on the bat you get better leverage and you can hit better, here, hit like this, try it.” Now, when the kid uses his strengths and his abilities and he encourages you and helps you to be your best, now what’s your attitude toward that kid? You want to be like him; you emulate him. You want to hang out with him. He’s your hero.

There was a time in this world when America was everybody’s hero. Now, we’re the bully that people resent, and it is not so much because we’re different in terms of our economic and military power. I want America to be the strongest nation on Earth, both militarily and economically. But the more powerful we are, the less we have to act like it. When a person goes around saying, “I’m in charge, I’m in charge, I’m in charge,” it proves one thing: he’s not in charge. You know that from your workplace. A person who’s really in charge doesn’t have to announce it; he doesn’t have to shove it in anybody’s face. People automatically respect him because he’s truly in charge. If America is really as strong as we ought to be, we ought to use our strength to encourage and to help. Not by giving away money – make sure you understand here that I’m not saying this is a giveaway, that’s not it at all. But rather than tell nations, “You’re either with us or you’re against us, it’s our way or no way,” we respect that in this neighborhood of ours, we need to treat our neighbors with the same respect we want to be treated with. It’s amazing what a little humility and a little less arrogance would do in that realm.

Or “God I love freedom!, But these folks will have to keep waiting for it”

I wonder if the French walked around Paris in the 1940′s expressing their love of freedom too?

You remind me of the debate over the Armenitan genocide /not genocide.

The argument devolves into one over terminilogy, and trying to just discover the facts becomes secondary.
Is there a competition over the ‘most brutal’ title?
Can’t we have a list of many ‘most brutal’ regimes, and just talk about what they did to earn mention?

It’s strange that I can discuss these matters with my friends (we are not an unusual group), but it never happens in the blogosphere. I’ve tried, with tersm like ‘personal liberty’ and ‘equal opportunity’ only to be ment with silence or an admonition that I just don’t get it (i.e., I’m not a naive fan of the latest political fad).

I don’t object to using these terms per se, but after the rallying cry, I want to see a reality check via some reference of what the real possibilities and repercussions are.

Freedom is, of course, something everyone longs for. The question is, how will I be able to practice it? What are the limits on my freedom? Who will be the referee when my freedom runs into someone else’s freedon?

I don’t mind on principle if people like Bush use words like freedom and democracy. I do mind
if those words are used to imply that he abstract word in itself provides the answer to all that alis this difficult life.

Of course, Saddam was a brutal dictator, his regime among the most monstrous ever.

Among the “most monstrous?” Shouldn’t this statement require some rigour before use? Brutal seems easy, but most “most monstrous ever?”

As for Saddam- bad guy, but in the pantheon of Major League dictators, he’s strictly AA ball.