NICHOLAS X. RIZOPOULOS
The Autumn of
OUf
Discontent
O
VER THIS PASTTIIANKSGIVING IIOLIDAY, following an absence of
several years, I paid a brief visit
to
London where I reconnected
with a number of old British (and other European) friends. Not
surprisingly, the first and principal topic of conversation was "Septem–
ber I
l."
Yet a fter some in itia I expressions of sym pa thy-a nd even
horror-at what had transpired in New York and Washington, I was
astounded to discover that far too many of my interlocutors, all of
whom were
echt
cosmopol ita nand professed
to
be "pro-America n,"
quickly switched into another gear: if not actual
schadenfreude,
then
certainly a sort of smug satisfaction in not-sa-gently lecturing me,
inter
alia,
about America's "imperial arrogance," its "s infulness" in support–
ing the "murderous Israelis" all these years, and its "callousness" and
"cruelty" in bombing "innocent civilian targets"-first in Iraq, then in
the former Yugoslavia, and now in Afghanistan.
Perhaps I should have known better and not been so surprised. But I
was. And to this day I do not begin
to
understand how any reasonable
person, let alone putative friends of the United States, could find any jus–
tification whatsoever for Osama bin Laden's doings or pretend
to
be
shocked by America's a ll egedly "disproportionate" response in declaring
war against al Qaeda and the Taliban. This is not
to
say that I am so na',\'e
as to be oblivious to the many, though (in my book ) mostly bad, reasons
"why the world loves to hate America"
(to
borrow from the title of a
recent article by Moises Na"m that appeared in the
Financial Times);
but
it is certain ly a situation where to understand all is not also to forgive–
or
to
pass over in silence moral relativism masquerading as realpolitik.
Once back in New York, I soon found myself absorbed in reading the
sort of publication that normally makes a book reviewer's heart sink : a
multi-author volume of essays dealing w ith time-sensitive issues, and
revolving around a "hot" topic already ana lyzed to death by the media
and assorted academic pundits. ot the least, then, of the merits of the
two dozen artic les quickly commiss ioned and ably edited by James
F.
Hoge,
Jr.
and G ideon Rose (respective ly, Editor and Managing Editor of
Foreign Affairs)
is the more than short-term usefulness of the majority
