in our image (not!)
Ironically, what the terrorists have brought about -- more accurately, what they have provided an excuse for -- is even greater American engagement in the region, the first in a series of externally imposed regime changes. The purpose is not to remake the world in America's image, a project that would require politically unacceptable levels of expenditure, but to make the world safe for the US. It is not about helping foreigners enjoy the American way of life -- think of the cost of providing clean water for six billion people, let alone all the labour-saving devices Americans rely upon -- but removing threats to it, regionally and globally.
It is an admission that selling America to the rest of the world, assuming that we would come to love the country through consuming its technology, movies, music and food, has not worked. On the contrary, it has created familiarity without respect, global recognition without affection, an unstable combination of desire, envy and loathing. Now the American government has responded not by doing things that will improve its image -- sharing its prosperity with poor countries, and withdrawing support for dictators all over the world, not just in Iraq -- but with a brazen demonstration of military might. We may not like what it is doing, but we certainly know who -- for the moment at least -- is calling the shots.
[link|http://argument.independent.co.uk/regular_columnists/joan_smith/story.jsp?story=396582|http://argument.inde....jsp?story=396582]
