Honestly, Nadine, I don't think the US is facing as difficult a time with the double standard that Israel does, and my guess is that it never will.
Israel/Palestine has been two scorpions in a bottle for 50 plus years, to the point that the participants have become desensitized to the humanity of the adversary.
Many, perhaps most, Americans, and certainly the best ones, and I put myself into that category, are proud that Americans are held to a higher standard than Saddam Hussein, the Ba'ath party, Osama bin Laden, and Al Qaeda.
That is what Victor Hanson was talking about when he used the phrase "Western exceptionalism" - "On the one side are those who believe in Western exceptionalism, the unique menu of individual freedom, personal liberty, consensual government, capitalism, rationalism, free markets, religious tolerance and self-critique."
victorhanson.com
I don't want to adhere to the same standards as our adversaries in Fallujah, and I won't lose any sleep that Al Qaeda isn't going to apologize for 9/11.
Yes, there are plenty of Americans who want to respond, tit for tat, and even worse, turn the Middle East into a sheet of glass and so forth. But they are not in control, and I don't think they ever will be. |
