Anti-Americanism: It Isn't Just a Middle
Eastern Thing
by Sherri Muzher
Dissident Voice
November 5, 2002
Our media focus on the Arab and Islamic worlds, but
anti-Americanism is everywhere - so much so that the State Department recently
invited experts to a two-day conference to explain why. "Experts"
aren't needed. A glance at a foreign newspaper or a discussion with a
non-American friend will explain the roots of anti-Americanism.
Take my British friend Charlie. Like so many around the
world, he still seethes about events most Americans probably think of as old
news - if they think about them at all.
"I cringe when I see America cry to denounce terrorism
when just 10 years ago the Americans were welcoming (the Irish Republican
Army's) Jerry Adams and Martin McGuiness into their country like homecoming
heroes," Charlie wrote me. "I have mourned the death of three male
colleagues who died at the hands of the IRA during the early 80s. Why the hell
should I want to support the U.S. on terrorism .... Why didn't the U.S. support
the UK on her fight to beat terrorism?"
Many worldwide feel as Charlie does.
At a recent international film festival in Venice, it was
reported that the longest applause was for British filmmaker Ken Loach's
segment about an exiled Chilean who writes a letter to the families of the
Sept. 11 victims. In Chile on Sept. 11, 1973, he tells them, a U.S.-supported
coup d'etat ushered in the era of torture and death by the Augusto Pinochet
regime.
As an American of Palestinian descent, I know the USA's
unequivocal support of Israel over the Occupied Palestinians isn't winning her
friends in the Arab and Islamic worlds. I thought of relatives and friends in
the West Bank as I listened to President Bush's patronizing rhetoric about
Saddam Hussein's violation of U.N. resolutions: "Not once, not twice, but
16 times!" he angrily stated. Well, the Israelis have violated no less
than 65 U.N. resolutions, and the US has vetoed many more on behalf of Israel.
Further, UNICEF reports that more than half a million Iraqi
children under the age of five have died of malnutrition since UN sanctions
were put in place in 1991. I wonder how many Americans know that.
Elsewhere in the Arab World, there is a belief that the
non-elected brutal regimes remain out of support by the US. While democracy and
development flourish throughout the Third World, the Arab World is stuck in a
time warp, largely due to the policies of US-supported Arab regimes. Opposition
figures and intellectuals are often jailed to prevent any viable opposition
from forming.
How many remember the School of the Americas,
affectionately re-named the School of the Assassins? The facility was located
at Fort Benning, Georgia and intended to professionalize Latin American
military officers. However, many of the officers went on to become dictators,
death squad leaders, and perpetrators of the worst atrocities in the region.
Manuel Noriega and Roberto D'Aubuisson were among its “distinguished”
graduates.
U.S. trade with South Africa boomed during the 1960s
despite Apartheid, and though the US State Department reports of Indonesia’s
poor human rights record, military aid has been resumed – aid suspended after
the orgy of killing by US-trained troops that followed Timor's independence
vote.
According to Human Rights Watch we failed to disclose
documents detailing atrocities in Haiti. We also hindered investigations in
Rwanda by refusing to expose those providing arms to the killers during the
recent genocide.
We withdrew our support for the International Criminal
Court – a court designed to bring war criminals to justice – much to the dismay
of our Allies. We pulled out of the Kyoto Protocol – a global warming treaty –
even though our Allies supported that, too. Yet, we are quick to expect support
in our War on Terror.
Americans are generous and loving - when we know what is
going on. We abhor human rights violations and evil leaders. We usually root
for the underdog. Morality tends to be our compass. But any victory in our
"war on terror" must involve a victory in the war on
anti-Americanism. Our foreign policy must reflect those American values.
On the one year-anniversary of 9/11, banners at so many
public events read "we will not forget." Americans must keep in mind
that others, while sympathetic to us, are not forgetting their own horrors,
either.
Sherri Muzher is a
Palestinian-American lawyer, writer and activist based in Detroit, Michigan.