America's Image Overseas.....

For some reason, on phone calls and visits back home, many of my friends and relatives bemoan the falling image of the US overseas. The first thing I ask is to tell me what most recent trip that they have made outside the borders where they saw or heard or experienced this alarming revelation. Of course, none of them had actually been overseas but were parroting some liberal Democrats talking points on some 'news" show or debate. And I do make sure that I comment that since I live overseas, I have not experienced this and I do not think this 'dislike' exists at all.

I think that the image shift largely has been in the minds of liberal Democrats and those same people that are found in large numbers in the modern American media. Crybaby Democrats, I suppose, think that it is in our interests to be liked by people overseas. I find this thought stupid. Its like saying that what is important for New York Yankee baseball players is that the players on the other teams 'like' them. It is kind-of like Catch-22 when Colonel Cathcart and Colonel Korn offered Yossarian out of the Army Airforce and all they ask is for Yossarian to 'like us.'

I think that there are 2 things to consider:

1. Is it true that other people 'don't like us.'
2. Is it important to be liked?

I read here, what I have observed here in Asia, that people may not be as hostile as the crybaby Democrats claim....

The Chicago Council on Global Affairs reported that "the United States is still highly regarded in all five of the key areas of soft power addressed in this survey: economics, culture, human capital, diplomacy, and politics." Soft power means using non-military measures to influence other nations.

The Chicago Council, which is considered to reflect Midwestern common sense, added: "Whether this influence is a product of U.S. foreign policy or exists in spite of it, it is clear that the United States has a very strong foundation on which to build future policy in the region."

Doesn't seem as if we have an image problem is Asia. So, what is the problem? When I lived in Africa, it was before and at the very beginning of Bush Administration. I was not overly impressed with the Africans political thoughts and some did not like Americans very much (But they like Europeans, particularly the French even less). But I think that that their opinions on the US were largely due to their close physical connection with Europe and the influence that opinions and media had from the continent on Africans.

I remember some yapping African trying to tell me that the USA had implemented a secret sterilization program in Cameroon and that everyone in Cameroon knew about this (If it was a secret, then how did everyone know about this? I suppose it was a secret to everyone else in the world except the brilliant Cameroonians). I asked how did the US implement this program? Did some secret American secretly sterilize Cameroonians without them even noticing? He said that it was implemented through the WHO. The WHO is a division of the United Nations that is not 'controlled' by the USA. The UN is controlled by a coterie of idiotic bureaucrats from around the globe. So, I asked, "How did the US slip this through and passed this by all of the extremely intelligent Africans and Europeans that were also in the WHO?" No answer except the droning on by this highly educated engineer about how everyone knew that the US was behind this sterilization program (The Africans also thought that the US executed 9/11 in order to have an excuse to invade Afghanistan so that we could take over the building of some supposed $20 billion pipeline being built through there). Then I asked him "Why would the US even care one iota about the reproductive capabilities of Cameroonians?" People in Africa and having more or fewer of them does not impact the interests of the USA one little bit. This, comment, of course elicited no response at all.

The reason I write about this little vignette above, is that the US should not concern itself when opinions are just idiotic. Who cares what these clowns think anyway when their opinions are based in ridiculous fantasy anyway?

So, maybe the crybaby Democrats are concerned about the opinions of Europeans? I suppose since they look to the Europeans and their social progressive and economic policies to formulate their own policies for the US. But Europeans have always disliked Americans. They do not like that we do not follow their 'more enlightened model' for life. They resent our positive outlook and what we can achieve. For me, European nihilism is not for me, and I do not think that this Godless, nothing is clearly right or wrong approach to life is understood or acceptable to the average American.

Or maybe the crybaby Democrats think that we should be liked by Arabs? I think that not being liked by Arabs is badge of honor and something that we should be proud of. Who wants to be liked by crazy Muslim fanatics? What do we have to be like in order to be loved by crazy fanatical frothing at the mouth Muslims?

Or maybe crybaby Democrats think that we need to be loved by despots like Mugabe from Zimbabwe or any other dictator. And what do we need to do to loved by these dictators and despots?

So, in conclusion:

1. I do not think that the crybaby Democrat's claims that the world doesn't like us are not founded in reality.
2. That it is not important to be liked by the rest of the world. If they do not like us, than that is their problem not ours.