Comments
of Lars Trägårdh
Assistant Professor of History, Barnard College
There are two phases of the World Trade Center
catastrophe: first, the physical attack on World
Trade Center, the pain and sadness of seeing
friends and fellow denizens of New York suffer,
and second the political hijacking of that sorrow
and pain by a Bush administration seemingly
eager to push a bellicose agenda in the idiom
of war, good vs. evil, wanted dead or alive,
as if we were acting out some simple minded
Hollywood's script of a latter day cowboy movie.
Let
me, if you permit, focus on the second of these
phases of the current crisis. In choosing to
regard the attack as a particularly pernicious
expression of evil, or alternatively, as a wanton
assault on freedom -- America, in this reading
being the quintessential land of freedom --
a crucial question is avoided, much to our peril
and to the peril of the world. What drives the
hatred of the US?
To
be sure, understanding this hatred does not
excuse it, not should it refrain us from making
those guilty face justice. Yet this must not
simply be a time for vengeance, or for the portrayal
of the US in the cozy colors of innocence. And
indeed, while the administration and the mainstream
mass media, sadly including the New York
Times, has been avoiding such questions,
too eager to rally around the flag, many voices
can now be heard on the internet, on campuses
and in community gatherings such as this one.
Many
good Americans, as well as observers from afar,
have noted the obvious links when it comes to
American foreign policy in the Middle East,
in Iraq, in Afghanistan, and for that matter
throughout the third world, policies informed
by cold war anticommunism and the national self
interest in oil and other resources. While the
American public is presented with the image
of the US as the defender of freedom and democracy,
the savior of the free world, "America" has
come to mean something very different in those
countries where the US for decades have supported
corrupt and despotic regimes: throughout Latin
America and Africa, as well as in Saudi Arabia,
Egypt, Pakistan, Indonesia, to choose some countries
in the Arab and Muslim world.
And
while we mourn our dead, we must not forget
that so have civilian victims of American aggression,
so-called collateral damage, been mourned. Thus
it appears that one of the most virulent sources
for anti-American sentiment in the Arab and
Muslim wold is not the repression and violence
directed at the Palestinians, but the massive
number of dead in Iraq during the American led
assault, not too mention the many children who
have died due to the ill-fated American imposed
economic sanction. While the first Bush administration
tried to paint that war as a war against Saddam
as the new Hitler, this fooled very few. Everyone
knew it was about oil, ultimately about securing
the easy life in the SUV. In this sense, the
policies of the first Bush regime have come
home to roost during this the second Bush administration.
But
even in Europe, where compassion and common
grief with the victims of the attacks run very
deep, the support for Bush's aggressive stance
runs skin deep. In fact, I'd venture to say
that the outpouring of support is first and
foremost for New York, a city which many Europeans
and people around the world call their own,
everyone's common world capital. And if New
York is widely loved and admired, it is for
a specific set of American virtues: openness
to immigration, tolerance, freedom, diversity,
opportunity.
The
America of Bush, on the other hand, of unilateralism,
of American isolationism and arrogance, expressed
in a dismissive attitude towards the Kyoto accords,
the hopefully-by-now moribund missile shield
bonanza, the refusal to sign on to the world
court and the treaty against land mines, in
short, the refusal to submit to international
law and accords, protecting American national
sovereignty even as the US has few qualms about
transgressing the sovereignty of other nations
in the name of human rights and freedom, this
other America feels far less near and dear to
the Europeans. Let me emphasize here, that while
in some cases, the death penalty for example,
deep differences in values are at play, in many
other domains the deeper issue is not so much
specific positions on particular issues as the
attitude and perceived hypocrisy. Should the
Americans choose a less belligerent and more
cooperative approach and humble style, many
outstanding issues could be resolved.
As
it stands, however, many in Europe and around
the world worry, indeed fear for their future.
Will there be a war, a war likely to further
the agenda of the terrorists, who seek precisely
a war between the West and the Rest, or at least
between the US and Islam? Having just published
an article in the Swedish Newspaper Dagens
Nyheter, I have in the last few days spent
hours replying to young Swedes, worried for
the lives, just as people are here. Hopefully
the saber rattling is just that, lots of noise
and posturing for the galleries. But having
incited the American public, will the untested
Bush administration be able to resist the temptation
to act out the cowboy movie script, perhaps
so much easier for Bush to grasp than the complexities
of the budget or the mysteries of stem cell
research. Let us hope so, let us hope that in
his search for a global alliance he will also
find the time to elaborate a saner, more measured
stance.
Thank
you.
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