America's Visions
commentary by Wolfgang Koydl
(sz of 3.5.2003) - Middle East brutal, as usual: the past week no different than the past years. A suicide attack in Tel Aviv, bloody retaliation in Gaza, bad-mouthing America, innocent victims in Iraq. Whence then, please, the boldness of George Bush to land in a fighter plane on an aircraft carrier and then radiate, if not peace, joy, happiness, then at least such a bottomless optimism. Has he still got all his marbles ? The short answer is: Yes, he has. Because the past week there was not just the usual hate and horror to see, there were also signs, giving reasons for hope and optimism. The list of indications for it is much longer, than even optimists would have assumed.
For the first time the Palestinians succeeded to loosen the stranglehold in which their dwarf Tyrant Jassir Arafat has held them for decades. In the Iraq dozens of political groups agreed on a catalog of basic values, and even if this did not happen in a manner as civilized as was the case with the German constitutional convention in Herrenchiemsee 60 years ago, the Iraqis at least did not go after each other throats, as it was feared.
Saudis and Americans concluded meanwhile the departure of US troops from the desert monarchy, which could dry up the morass of the Islamic terror better and faster than all the terrorists' arrests. Eventually no more American soldiers will stand on the "holy soil" of the country of Mecca and Medina.
Even Tripoli had positive signals to report: the Bedouin lord Muammer al-Gaddafi paid the blood money to the survivors of the Lockerbie victims, thus indicating he also recognizes the new realities.
This reality carries beige American camouflage uniform, drives around in Humvees and tanks and is in the case of Iraq occupying one of the most important Arab countries. Murder and terror are grim normality in the Near East, but without the Iraq war there would be no positive indications of the past days.
The USA have also never made a secret of the fact that they regard the regime change in Baghdad as a starting shot for the new order of the region. The Near East certainly is only one element in a by far more ambitious project: the creation of a new worldwide order.
At the beginning it was the Middle East
Yes, George Bush of allpeople, the alleged legasthenic and election cheat, the wild- west cowboy and the pretzel eater, he wants to change and re-form the world according to the American template. Whether one finds this good or bad, he will pull it through, and neither he nor his nation will get short breath because of it. Because in the cold war USA also, for five decades, stayed steadfast on the course, and because the new task is felt to be just as important for American interests as used to be the fight against the Soviet system.
That Bush starts with the Near East, is not a coincidence, it's a necessity. Here the dangers and risks are intertwined as nowhere else in the world: an ideology, full of contempt for human beings, in a form of a miscarriage and disfigured mockery of Islam, together with arsenals bursting with weapons of all kinds and on top of it all the hate and hopelessness of impoverished, that all yields a highly explosive mixture.
The mixture is so dangerous that Europeans, Arabs and until recently also Americans shrank from getting involved. But today America thinks differently, at least in case of Neo radicals, who set the tone in the Bush government: Since things in the Near East, if left alone, were threatening to get out of control anyhow, they suggested preemption. It is better to steer and control changes, than to be surprised and overwhelmed by them.
Their attitude reflects fundamental differences between Europe and America. They were always there; but just recently they have gained very much in weight. One of the aspects is that America in principle always welcomes change of any kind, while the distrustful Europeans usually confront anything new with skepticism and with concern. They resemble a hermit crab that's most vulnerable, when it moves to a new house. It is unprotected, and the last thing that this crab needs in such a moment, is somebody, who impetuously reminds him, that he must swim out into the ocean to meet and prevent dangers.
Radical ideologists
In a world, in which old prototypes, structures and also collaterals do not apply any longer, the society, that knows how to react to new challenges rapidly, is certainly in advantage: therefore America. This is the reason, why USA have recognized the new realities more rapidly than Europeans, who would rather hang on to their old dreams, even if they turn out to be nightmares.
The ability to adapt to new alone is certainly is not enough, a fact which Europeans never get tired of reminding their American partners. When this ability does not firmly anchor on the rock bottom of lasting values, it may turn into an unsteady, wind rose-like activity. And these values - particularly democracy and human rights - they are nevertheless identical on both sides of the Atlantic? They are, aren't they?
Not every intellectual or politician is convinced that this is so. British historian Mark Mazower
for example states that Europeans regard the democracy first of all as by-product of capitalism and prosperity. "Europeans accept democracy, because they do not believe anymore in politics,“ he writes. But Mazower overlooks the simple fact that often Europe follows a different moral codex than USA. And America as a democratic model? For starters the weak election turnout does not speak for it.
It is certainly correct that Europe, which has already tried all the variants, from the nationalism over fascism to communism, has gotten tired of ideologies. America, however, in various aspects remained a radical-ideological nation that in its form of the democracy sees no less than the salvation for the mankind. Especially the bond with a religiously colored sense of mission is something that confuses, irritates and dismays many Europeans. American politicians let their highflying visions guide them. Their European colleagues, who due to their experience are more careful, tilt rather in a different direction, best put in words by the former Austrian Chancellor Franz Vranitzky: "People with visions need to see a doctor."
America is rolling up its sleeves to hack out in its own untroubled visionary way a new order for the world, that got out of joint - often without consideration for the objections of others. But unfortunately there's no other construction boss save Washington at hand now. Only Europeans could - and should - use the handle of their experience to brake the juvenile impetuosity of the USA. America could even learn from Europe. But to get that far, Europeans should first put together their own common learning plan.
Süddeutsche 101 p4 Sa/So 3/4 May 2003
original:
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