I’ve watched closely the reaction of the British people and the British government to last week’s terror attacks, and I must say that I wish America would take a cue from its former colonial patron. The British people have responded to the terror attacks with both class and realism–understanding that the two are not mutually exclusive. Londoners continue to ride the “tube,” and most seem to understand that the terror attacks were part of a broader conflict with the Arab world. The English seem also to understand that terror is, for the most part, the result of a conflict between Western economic and military policies (particularly those of the United States), and Arab nationalism. British PM Tony Blair, whom I’m not particularly a fan of, has responded with dignity, stressing British resoluteness and tolerance. It seems the British understand that radical Islam cannot be defeated with bombs and mortar, but can be defeated with stiff law enforcement, sincere understanding and the presentation of different ideologies. Significantly, there have been no calls to invade Argentina, nor any other country unaffiliated with the attacks.
America, on the other hand, responded to 9/11 with blind rage. That’s not to say that anger and rage were not justified, for they surely were. But America’s response, the invasion of Iraq, its chest-thumping, its withdrawal from the international community, its spurning of long-time allies, the media complicity and the Patriot Act, demonstrate a short-sightedness that I’ve come to accept as part of the culture of this nation in the post-9/11 period. It is said the God should bless America, and America alone; that God willed America to act around the world, and to determine the future of His earth. These views, while cloaked in the language of strength, display, in reality, weakness and fear. As anyone with any shred of wisdom knows, people that puff and try to be strong are, in reality, weak on the inside. (See, for example, Tupac)
I credit this difference between the US and the UK to one thing–the fact that Europeans, particularly the British, travel. They travel all over the world, experiencing different cultures and learning the issues from new, never-before-countenanced angles. Because America is such a vast nation, most Americans have never been outside of America’s borders. According to several sources, only 21% of Americans have a passport. Therefore, because Americans are unfamiliar with other countries, they are easier to manipulate through fear and innuendo, as we saw in the run-up to the Iraq War. Throw in a media that is willing to make this a religious war between Christianity and Islam and you have a recipe for disaster that could change the course of the world.
In sum, America should take a clue from its most trusted ally, and learn how to understand terror with a greater, more in-depth world view.
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