User:Ruhrjung/the assaults on liberty and international law

Having dozens of more or less close friends and relatives in the U.S., I feel obliged to make a few things very clear.


 * The actual aggression against Iraq's population is not per se worse than other atrocities committed by superpowers. It's deplorable but far from unique. The fact that the invasion of Iraq made an intra-western split highly visible may not be misinterpreted as some kind of peculiar solidarity for the Iraqi people. They are of course deplorable, as were the objects of Russian and American aggressions under the previous half-century, but Iraq is nothing but a litmus.
 * However, a repetitious demonizing of other democracies who perceive themselves as closely related to the British and American ways of thinking can not do anything else than producing a feeling of alienation and distrust over for English speaking powers. Regardless of whom can be held responsible for this phenomenon, it's my experience that U.S. and some U.K. mass media and opinion leaders are much more disrespectful of other democracies than is the case in Continental European countries. Particularly unhelpful is a widespread misuse of the concept anti-Americanism.
 * This wilful disuniting of the Democratic (or Western) World will harm all of us, however – of course – Europeans who are not protected by Atlantic and Pacific Oceans are more in harm's way than are the British or the Americans.
 * Attempts to disunite and sabotage the inner workings of the European Union make me particularly disappointed. Although the EU is hampered by a multitude of internal problems, personally I have by now grown immensely suspicious of any contributions from the British or the Americans. They seem to have no other purpose than to weaken the European nations’ long-term capabilities to cope with potential dangers against peace and societal cohesion.

What's happened within the group of democratic powers, states and nations after the fall of the Soviet Union is a depressing and scary set of events. History will judge us harshly.