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Politics : Stockman Scott's Political Debate Porch -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Wharf Rat who wrote (45418)	5/6/2004 11:08:42 PM
From: Wharf Rat	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 89467

On world stage, critics of US grow louder May 2, 2004 This article was written by Globe staffer Colin Nickerson from South Korea, Canada, and Iraq, with contributions from staffers John Donnelly from Rwanda and South Africa; David Filipov from Russia; Charles A. Radin from Egypt, Pakistan, and Israel; Charles M. Sennott from Poland and Spain; and correspondent Marion Lloyd from El Salvador. SEOUL -- On a wind-swept quadrangle of Seoul National University, the weekly demonstration against the United States was building up steam. Activists thrust clenched fists skyward while chanting the usual chants -- ''US out of Iraq!" ''US out of Korea!" ''US out of Asia!" -- and waggling posters bearing brightly colored caricatures. Check out Uncle Sam puffing a big fat stogie atop a heap of nuclear missiles! Catch President George W. Bush in Dracula garb, vampire fangs dripping blood! Inside a common room on the South Korean campus, Lee Ji-Woo, a 21-year-old student of agricultural economics, winced as the bullhorn tirade outside rattled the window panes. ''It isn't noisy protesters that should bother Americans," she said. ''What should bother Americans are the quiet feelings of anger and disgust filling the hearts of people who normally would be your best friends. America is becoming such a bully and a boor -- deaf to every voice except its own. Demanding its own way, 'Now, now, now!', and suggesting that anyone who disagrees or argues is an enemy. That frightens me. I think it frightens many people." Her view was echoed by many of the scores of people on four continents interviewed by Globe reporters in recent weeks. Even in former citidels of pro-America sentiment in Asia, Europe, and Latin America, people are starting to chafe and complain. They are increasingly irritated by what many South Koreans facetiously refer to as the Pax Americana -- a world politically dominated by Washington, a world increasingly steeped in US moral values, and a world awash in American culture. There has always been anti-Americanism. From the time of the country's first forays onto the international scene, at the outset of the 19th century, there have been choruses of ''Yankee go home!" But the sentiment has never seemed quite so pervasive, even among people who feel immense gratitude to the United States. ''My first memory is of American soldiers bringing food and blankets," said Kim Seung-Yil, 55, a South Korean garment manufacturer, who was a baby when invading North Koreans destroyed his home village of Seotan-Mun before being repelled by US forces. ''I've always thought of Americans as saviors. Their blood is soaked so deeply in our soil. But now it feels as if the US is becoming the crusader only for its own values and interests. It wants America's rights and wrongs to be the world's rights and wrongs. This makes people uncomfortable." Continued... 1 2 3 4 5 Next boston.com