I see what you're suggesting, but the significant difference is (writing as an inimitably arrogant American) the stature and role of the US on the international stage as compared to those European countries.
I do believe, inspite of our foibles, that the US occupies a special place in the minds of the world community. The cultural diversity of our country, the freedoms we grant ourselves and the success they've enabled us to manifest, the leadership role we've taken in world wars, etc, represent virtues that I believe people from around the world admire. Those same people,it seems to me, divide their judgement of us into two spheres: the American people, and what they represent, and the American government, and what it represents. (Perhaps, unconsciously, we share their dualistic perspective.)
The 9.11 attack, though ostensibly directed to make a statement to the American government, was, because of the nature of the target, primarily an attack on our people, and it's that distinction that has hurt many of us the most. It saddens me to say it, but I think that had we lost 6000 soldiers on that day, we would have been similarly traumatized but, I suspect, in a much different way. Somehow, it wouldn't have felt like such a wholesale indictment of our entire being . . .
This is the first time the continental US has ever been attacked from abroad, and we're just stunned--completely stunned, and can't begin to understand it, so, our quite natural reaction (as is the reaction of many victims of violence: rape victims, victims of assault...) is to ask, "why ? why? . . ."
This is just my visceral reaction, and I'm sure it sounds worse than I intended, but then, lately, I hardly know what to say or feel about much.
Confused mind in a confused time. |
