The Big Picture

Via InstaPundit comes this lengthy article by the UPI's Martin Walker on the effects of last year's attack on the United States. The emphasis is not on the lives lost or the blow to the economy but rather on how these things have effected the American view of the world and how we see our ourselves in terms of international leadership.

The real effect of Sept. 11 is that American patience and tolerance for its global critics, most of whom do rather well out of America's benign hegemony, seems just about exhausted.

I hope this is the view across political parties. I think that most Americans - the exception being certain outspoken academics, some of their students, and liberal politicians - truly are sick and tired of worrying or pretending to worry about what the rest of the world thinks. We have established ourselves as world leaders. We lead the world in economy, military strength, agriculture, technology, academia and learning, and, yes, moral certitude. We are better than the rest of the world, and we know it. We export our culture because our culture is superior. We can't control our own borders because our country is so much better than any other that people will do anything it takes to come here.

It is time to stop worrying about what the French think. Hell, it is time to stop worrying about what the Israelis think. We know what is right; we know who is wrong; we know what needs to be done.

I think that President Bush thinks along these lines as much as he is allowed to within the constraints of the political system that he works in. Hopefully with the full support of the you and me, the US will soon stop waiting for signs of approval from the rest of the world and do what needs to be done.

Jonathan 9/09/2002 07:53:00 AM