Book review--Friendly Fire
Many, if not most or nearly all, Americans are clueless (and sometimes quite audibly and proudly so) about what the world thinks of our country and unfortunately, the people running the US are part of that majority. Julia Sweig attempts to draw attention to this serious problem in Friendly Fire. Sweig seems fairly non-partisan throughout the book; indeed, at times I thought she might be a righty blaming Clinton (and at others she attributed much of the cause to Smirky), but overall I think she is actually uninterested in party politics. Instead, Sweig wants to show anyone who reads the book that our antagonistic diplomatic policies have been in place for decades, although clearly the Bush Administration has done far more damage than any before it in erasing any good will that the international community felt for us.
The book is loosely organized into 3 parts: the first describing our Cold War policies and its effects on Latin America primarily, the second giving case studies of various countries' rising hatred, and the last providing some tentative solutions. This structure is fairly slight, actually, as each section contains some damning evidence that the US is losing friends fast while showing that it really has been our fault all along. Echoing Mahbubani's Beyond the Age of Innocence (reviewed here), Sweig makes it clear that the US is no longer acting in anyone's best interests but its own, and we have only ourselves to blame for any ill will our selfish attitudes and policies have created in others. She does not dwell overlong on that point, however, preferring instead to prove her assertion with short regional histories and the case studies mentioned above. Our "interventions" into governments all over the globe (but primarily in Latin America) in order to stave off Communism during the Cold War have now evolved into incursions into foreign economies for the sake of profit (in addition to the new anti-terrorist military expeditions). While our anti-Communist/pro-democratic interventions were apparently mostly forgivable (as shown by mostly pro-US feelings abroad), the new wave of pro-capitalist (or simply ignorant and self-serving) political diplomacy is failing spectacularly. The most startling case studies involve Germany, where shame of the Holocaust is receding and nationalist assertion of pride is increasing, and South Korea, where actually our interventions in both the Cold War and modern eras have proven damaging to Korean desires.
As World War II's atrocities fade slowly away into institutional and personal memory, the German people and its politicians have begun to reassert their desire to be treated as a major and trustworthy player in European politics. This new independence from US influence was shown most dramatically during the run-up to the Iraq occupation, as the Germans were among the most vociferous anti-Bush voices. Indeed, "[t]he war in Iraq, George Bush's particular style, and his cabinet's dismissive and derisive attitude toward Germany accelerated the force of generational changes already under way [sic] and reinforced the new German argument that the time had come for "a more assertive and sovereign Germany." Our new diplomacy is fomenting evolutionary changes in some of our former allies, according to Sweig, and very few of them are favorable to the US.
Our continued interference in Korea over the past 6 decades has begun to yield bitter fruit as well, although only in the last few years has it turned angry. Sweig quotes a popular song released in the aftermath of Apolo Anton Ohno's controversial victory over Kim Dong Sung in the Salt Lake City Olympics; clearly these people are pissed:
Sweig's book is frightening in its analysis, made the more so due to her lack of seeming political stance: this book cannot be dismissed as a partisan polemic. The one weakness it has is that her section on solutions is rather thin and incomplete, but that is even more upsetting; reversing the trends of anti-Americanism is a problem even someone who has studied them had trouble solving, even in theory . . .
The book is loosely organized into 3 parts: the first describing our Cold War policies and its effects on Latin America primarily, the second giving case studies of various countries' rising hatred, and the last providing some tentative solutions. This structure is fairly slight, actually, as each section contains some damning evidence that the US is losing friends fast while showing that it really has been our fault all along. Echoing Mahbubani's Beyond the Age of Innocence (reviewed here), Sweig makes it clear that the US is no longer acting in anyone's best interests but its own, and we have only ourselves to blame for any ill will our selfish attitudes and policies have created in others. She does not dwell overlong on that point, however, preferring instead to prove her assertion with short regional histories and the case studies mentioned above. Our "interventions" into governments all over the globe (but primarily in Latin America) in order to stave off Communism during the Cold War have now evolved into incursions into foreign economies for the sake of profit (in addition to the new anti-terrorist military expeditions). While our anti-Communist/pro-democratic interventions were apparently mostly forgivable (as shown by mostly pro-US feelings abroad), the new wave of pro-capitalist (or simply ignorant and self-serving) political diplomacy is failing spectacularly. The most startling case studies involve Germany, where shame of the Holocaust is receding and nationalist assertion of pride is increasing, and South Korea, where actually our interventions in both the Cold War and modern eras have proven damaging to Korean desires.
As World War II's atrocities fade slowly away into institutional and personal memory, the German people and its politicians have begun to reassert their desire to be treated as a major and trustworthy player in European politics. This new independence from US influence was shown most dramatically during the run-up to the Iraq occupation, as the Germans were among the most vociferous anti-Bush voices. Indeed, "[t]he war in Iraq, George Bush's particular style, and his cabinet's dismissive and derisive attitude toward Germany accelerated the force of generational changes already under way [sic] and reinforced the new German argument that the time had come for "a more assertive and sovereign Germany." Our new diplomacy is fomenting evolutionary changes in some of our former allies, according to Sweig, and very few of them are favorable to the US.
Our continued interference in Korea over the past 6 decades has begun to yield bitter fruit as well, although only in the last few years has it turned angry. Sweig quotes a popular song released in the aftermath of Apolo Anton Ohno's controversial victory over Kim Dong Sung in the Salt Lake City Olympics; clearly these people are pissed:
Did you see the short-track speed skating race?The mp3 of the song was apparently downloaded or listened to over 30,000 times in the first day of its release in February 2003. That's not good, folks--South Korea is supposed to be an ally of ours.
What a vulgar country, fucking U.S.A.!
You'd go that far just to win the Gold?
What a nasty country, fucking U.S.A.!
.
.
.
Don't forget the blood and tears we've shed!
You, the cause of our division, Fucking U.S.A.!
Don't forget the No Gun Ri massacre of civilians!
You, country of murderers, Fucking U.S.A.!
Sweig's book is frightening in its analysis, made the more so due to her lack of seeming political stance: this book cannot be dismissed as a partisan polemic. The one weakness it has is that her section on solutions is rather thin and incomplete, but that is even more upsetting; reversing the trends of anti-Americanism is a problem even someone who has studied them had trouble solving, even in theory . . .
posted by bryduck at 8:50 AM
2 Comments:
I believe that people in other lands must get very tired of hearing Americans brag about being from the "greatest country in the world." I know I do.
Americans often suck. Out.
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