Pride in the USA

Before Sept.11, 2001, Americans had a lot to be proud of _ the most successful government and richest people in world history, over 50 years of Pax Americana under its direction, a diverse, multi-ethnic society living in relative harmony, and the cutting edge in music videos and soft drinks. A year after Sept. 11, Americans have even more to be proud of.

Despite a few ugly incidents, American Arabs and Muslims have been treated with respect and consideration, and enjoy more political, economic, and social freedom than they would in their countries of origin. The US government has responded decisively and successfully, but not excessively, being carefully to build international support before taking military action. And the American people have banded together to show the world that the American spirit is something that transcends music videos and soft drinks.

However, Americans have also had to face virulent anti-American sentiment in much of the rest of the world and reconcile this with their pride for their own country. Some have gone to history in search of the seeds of this resentment and found reasons to question their patriotism. While America's past is not spotless, it is difficult to justify the amount of anti-Americanism in the world today based on past American failures in judgment. We are not perfect, but we are good.

Indeed, America's successes have bred more hatred through envy than have its failures through indignation. Given its wealth and power, there is very little America could do to placate anti-Americanism, even if it tried. This is partly because anti-American rhetoric is so varied and contradictory. America is at once too realistic, too idealistic, too rational, too irrational, too democratic, too undemocratic, too isolationist, too interventionist, too aggressive, too passive, too religious, too secular, too stoic, and too hedonistic.

Appeasing one anti-American faction justifies the bias of another. This array of charges against the US in part represents the world's ambivalence towards us. The world needs us to get anything done. This at once brings efforts to obtain our assistance and envy and ill will bred by its need, even when the assistance is given.

I once asked an expert on anti-Americanism if there were any US action that might be welcomed by all anti-Americanists. He suggested scholarship programs to bring bright young students from poor countries to the US to study. This seemed adequately noble and pure to me at the time, but not 24 hours later I found myself listening to an activist rail against similar programs as "subsidized brain drain."

Similarly, US programs to give away food surpluses to poor countries are criticized as an effort to drive out local farmers by pushing food prices impossibly low, and it is said that the food dependency is used later as a political tool. Someone might suggest that a country wanting to avoid these problems could grow their own damn food, but this would be decidedly politically incorrect.

Another important lesson from Sept.11 is that anti-Americanism is often a product of internal politics, rather than any heartfelt conviction that the United States is in fact an agent of the devil. This is certainly true with regards to bin Laden and his relationship with the House of Saud, but it occurs in Europe as well.

In Italy last spring, when tempers flared over labor laws, unions brought anti-US rhetoric into the debate, even though the US has very little to do with Italian labor laws. This, again, is unavoidable. There are and always will be those who insist on construing every US action as an attempt at world domination.

There is, of course, no plan in the US for world domination. But we do have significant interests in world affairs, and we shouldn't feel ashamed of defending them. Pandering to the anti-Americanists is a futile exercise. America's and the world's interests will be better served if US politicians ignore the peanut gallery and get back to the business of serving and protecting the people who elected them for that purpose.

Although we have much to be proud of, now is no time for revelry. The world

needs us, and they know it.

David Eil is a senior majoring in international relations and classics.