Democratic War, Repressive Peace: On Anti-Americanism
Author: Russell A. Berman, Media Times Review
What provokes the anti-American is American activism: not the role America plays in the world but that it is in the world at all. Whatever the American action, the anti-Ameican denounces it, but particularly when the action is couched in a policy of defending the freedom to act, which in turn implies a set of democratic values. The absence of freedom in particular locales—Iraq, Afghanistan, the Balkans—is typically of concern only for tiny non-governmental organizations, not for the mass-movement public, except when the United States intervenes. There were no mass demonstrations in Paris, Berlin, or Barcelona against Milosevic, the Taliban, or Saddam ever. There were no demonstrations for regime change, ever. The mass movement only emerges when the authoritarian regime is challenged.
Read more: http://mediatimesreview.com/april05/Berman.php