Monday, March 08, 2004

400 lb gorilla

Baghdad Burning: "The annoying thing is that your average Arab knows much more about American culture and history than the average American knows about Arabs and Islam."
Yes, Riverbend, you do know more about America than they know about you. There is hardly a country in the world, Canada included, where this is not true. Its partly due to the global reach of their TV shows, and partly due to their military and economic reach. It also used to be due, as well, to their good example as a land of the free, Bill of Rights, and so forth.
But not anymore. This is why what has happened to America in the last three years is so tragic -- they used to be an example of democracy as well -- now, with Guantanamo, the Patriot Act, Enron, war in Iraq, shipping people to other countries for torture, and so forth, they have lost the moral high ground. Its sad. (Thanks to War in Context for the Riverbend link.)

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