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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: JohnM who wrote (85350)	3/24/2003 8:38:45 AM
From: stockman_scott	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 281500

How to Save Brand America As Iraqis quake in justified terror, Americans fret about the threat to their 'values' and wonder why they are so widely disliked. Here one friend of America lists the reasons... and the remedy by Henry Porter Published on Sunday, March 23, 2003 by the Observer/UK commondreams.org <<...It is difficult to overestimate the shock that 9/11 delivered to the American psyche. Security has become a national obsession. It seems odd to the outside world that while US troops were being deployed in the Gulf, Americans were stocking up on bottled water and tape to seal their homes from chemical weapons attacks. There is something rather panicky and self-obsessed about the US today and it is in this atmosphere that any challenge to the government or security agencies is immediately classed as unpatriotic. Americans will bridle at these observations, but as Philip Roth pointed out in October, since 9/11 they have indulged in 'an orgy of national narcissism and a gratuitous victim mentality which is repugnant'. Now the bombs have rained on Baghdad it is time for America to stop worrying about its values being under attack and to re-engage with the world, showing the openness and generosity that was once so admired. That is the only way to reinvigorate Brand America...>> ________________________________________ · Empire State, a novel by Henry Porter about a US/UK counter-terrorist operation, is published by Orion in September. © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2003