The Omega Letter Intelligence Digest

Vol: 36 Issue: 2 - Thursday, September 02, 2004

The Ugly American
by Jack Kinsella

It is hard for the average American to grasp the level of hatred most of
the world's population feels for the United States. Indeed, it is a
conflicting picture; while the world's newspapers condemn America,
America's biggest headache is illegal immigration.

It is hard for Americans to grasp the dichotomy inherent in some of these
would-be immigrants coming here to explode, rather than exploit, America's
famed streets of gold.

Islamic fundamentalists declare America the Great Satan. Europeans rail
against American capitalism and American culture. South American activists
denounce the United States for "neocolonialism" and oppression.

Anti-Americanism from abroad would not be such a problem if Americans were
united in standing up for their own country. But in this country itself,
there are those who blame America for most of the evils in the world. On
the political left, many fault the United States for a history of slavery,
and for continuing inequality and racism.

Leaders from the extreme right say that America is so decadent that it
rivals Sodom and Gomorrah.

Let's fact it.  If these critics are right, the America deserves to be
destroyed.  A nation that condones slavery, racism and immorality on a
national scale doesn't have much right to live.

But, of course, America DOESN'T condone those things. Fringe groups within
America condone those things.  But it is the fringe groups that get the
most press, because the elite American press believes that it IS America
that is evil.

Genuinely evil countries like Iran, North Korea, Syria, the Sudan, etc.,
are simply reacting to American bullying, they believe.  That attitude is
reflected by the liberals at the New York Times, the Big Three Networks,
etc., etc.  But unlike the countries that hate us, America has a free
press.

The average Canadian or European knows more about US politics than they do
their own, thanks to America's free press, since their own press is
censored by their respective governments.  And citizens of tyrannies like
North Korea or Syria or Iran don't know a THING about their own
governments, but they have access to any American press critical of
Washington.

And the Democrats, in particular, are responsible for most of the
anti-American rhetoric picked up and rebroadcast by the liberal mainstream
media.

As Senator Zell Miller (D. Ga)  pointed out so accurately in his keynote
speech to the GOP Convention;

"But don't waste your breath telling that to the leaders of my party
today. In their warped way of thinking America is the problem, not the
solution. They don't believe there is any real danger in the world except
that which America brings upon itself through our clumsy and misguided
foreign policy."

Assessment:

In the 1980's CBS broadcast a documentary called, "People Like Us."  It
was intended to show the miseries of the poor during the brutal recession
inherited by the Reagan administration.

The Soviet Union also broadcast the documentary, with a view to
embarrassing the Reagan administration.

But according to the subsequent testimony of former Soviet leaders, it had
the opposite effect. Ordinary people across the Soviet Union saw that the
poorest Americans have TV sets, microwave ovens and cars.  A standing joke
of the time was, "I want to live in a country where the poor people are
fat."

As hated as America is, it is still the destination of choice for millions
of immigrants every year. They are generally astonished to find that the
America they discovered is not the America that they hear about from the
American press.

I noted an observation made by a recent immigrant to the US from Bombay.
Writes Dinesh D'Souza, "The ordinary life of production and supporting a
family is more highly valued in the United States than in any other
country. America is the only country in the world where we call the waiter
"sir," as if he were a knight."

D'Souza also made note of an element in the American character that is
regularly pilloried by US liberals and forms the basic argument for
anti-Americanism -- American arrogance.  But D'Souza sees it for what it
really is:

"For all his riches, Bill Gates could not approach the typical American
and say, "Here's a $100 bill. I'll give it to you if you kiss my feet."
Most likely, the person would tell Gates to go to hell! The American view
is that the rich guy may have more money, but he isn't in any fundamental
sense better than anyone else."

The Ugly America is a myth, but it is a myth of the American Left's own
creation, which is what gives the myth such credibility abroad.

When a Syrian student reads in the New York Times that the White House
invaded Iraq to steal its oil, why should that student believe America's
REAL objective is to bring democracy and freedom?

To someone raised in a totalitarian society, invading to steal makes
perfect sense.  Invading in order to help does not.  What's in it for
America?

So, having read in the New York Times that America is stealing Arab oil,
why would he believe America when it denies it?  By definition, a thief is
also a liar.

Especially since the New York Times came right out and told him the
President was a liar who concocted an excuse to invade Iraq to steal oil
in the first place!

In the Bible's Big Picture scenario for the last days, there are four
spheres of world power; Gog-Magog, the Kings of the East, the Kings of the
South and the antichrist's revived Roman Empire.   But there is no mention
of a fifth, overarching superpower resembling the United States of
America.

Nobody can dogmatically say what happened to remove the US from the Big
Picture -- it simply isn't there.  One possible reason might be the
Rapture of the Church.

In this view, the Lord returns for His Church.  The instantaneous
disappearance of millions of Americans, together with most of the Bush
Cabinet, the military leadership and at least part of the House and Senate
would cripple America beyond recognition.   Therefore, America is absent
from Scripture because the Rapture made her inconsequential.

Personally, this is my favorite explanation, but only because I prefer it,
not because I have any Scriptural reason to believe it.

Quoting once more from Senator Miller's speech:  "Now, while young
Americans are dying in the sands of Iraq and the mountains of Afghanistan,
our nation is being torn apart and made weaker because of the Democrat's
manic obsession to bring down our Commander in Chief."

It is just as possible that America hands its future over to the liberals
who bear the responsibility for its international reputation as a
dishonest, thieving, immoral paper tiger that so much of world now
believes deserves to be destroyed.