Where's the Love?

I am currently reading a book Stephen Ambrose book called “Wild Blue” that follows the flight crew of the “Dakota Queen” (a B-24) through their campaign in WWII. At this point in the story, the Americans are moving into Southern Italy and setting up their airbases there. When we moved in the Italians were immensely grateful to have the American air boys there, for the food that the Americans gave them, the wages the Americans paid them (small by American standards, even out of the Depression), and even flat out overlooked the problems the Americans brought with them. What a different world we live in today. Now aide from the US is not considered as something to be grateful for, but people look on it with expectation, and at the same time, scorn. We are no longer seen as the guardian of Democracy providing hope and life for those who have no reason to believe they are even going to live through the week. The humanitarian support flowing out of America is larger now than it has ever been in history, we are liberating people of some of the most oppressive governments this world has ever seen, but only after all reasonable attempts at diplomacy have been exhausted. For all this we receive a reputation as a bully, a modern conqueror attempting the establishment of an Empire. How can we change this? We can’t remove aid because then we would be seen as even larger bully. Though, the idea of a parent taking a cookie from a child who doesn’t say thank you would be very novel here. We can’t just pack up and leave the Middle East, or Europe, or Asia, or Africa for that matter, as that would leave the entire global community in uproar and chaos. We cannot afford a policy of isolationism; the world doesn’t work that way anymore. Yet, at the same token, as an expat American, and a patriotic one at that, I catch a lot of flak for the way people look at us. I have been barraged by the British for our actions in the Middle East when it was the British that started this whole mess in the first place by creating nations out of an Empire after WWII with no respect whatsoever to the inhabitants. I have been greeted by a Greek soldier who was calling the US a “stupid” imperialist nation for trying to “conquer” Iraq.

The last time anyone ever heard of the Greek army it was because they were attempting to take over a small, uninhabited Aegean Island from Turkey in 1996. (cnn.com) Now their largest task is guarding the Olympic village from terrorist attacks, after the games are already over, and this guy is sitting here telling me that Americans are greedy, stupid, and crazy!? I don’t know what the solution is. I don’t know what we can do to restore our image internationally and have people recognize us for who and what we are, and not what their local media is presenting as the popular image. What sickens me even more is the idea that my fellow Americans now holding this image. When I’m defending our president, our country, and her actions from the most recent belligerent Brit and someone from our group is taking their side in attacking his own country for her helping people in distress, and preempting nuclear war it frustrates me to no end. Rant, done.