It's too bad James Lewis didn't finish the quote from Obama's Strasbourg speech, following "...derisive":
"But in Europe, there is an anti-Americanism that is at once casual, but can also be insidious. Instead of recognizing the good that America so often does in the world, there have been times where Europeans choose to blame America for much of what is bad. On both sides of the Atlantic, these attitudes have become all too common. They are not wise. They do not represent the truth. They threaten to widen the divide across the Atlantic and leave us both more isolated. They fail to acknowledge the fundamental truth that America cannot confront the challenges of this century alone, but that Europe cannot confront them without America."
In total, I call that a fair & balanced, and yes, hopeful, assessment. It threw Europeans a rhetorical bone, but also gave them some criticism to chew on. That's quintessential diplomacy.
I couldn't be more pleased.
As for selective quotation of our president, and virulent francophobia, I expect nothing less of Realclearpolitics.
P.S. -- The "we saved your ass back in WWII" argument isn't going to work forever, if it hasn't stopped working already. Just like our gratitude to the French for saving our asses during the American Revolution long ago passed its expiration date.
P.P.S. -- To say that America liberated E. Europe is way too simplistic and self-serving, and completely disregards the risks, sacrifices and achievements of the people living in those countries, for example the Solidarity movement in Poland, Prague Spring in Czechoslovakia, the UPA separatist army in Ukraine, and thousands of brave dissidents like Vasyl Stus who stood up to an evil regime and paid the ultimate price, but whose example lived on. In a word, Lewis's statement is wrong, and yes, comes off as completely ignorant and arrogant. We should be thanking them for freeing themselves and making the world a more open, peaceful, prosperous and democratic place for us all to live in.
"In America, there's a failure to appreciate Europe's leading role in the world. Instead of celebrating your dynamic union and seeking to partner with you to meet common challenges, there have been times where America has shown arrogance and been dismissive, even derisive."
-- President Barack Obama, April 3, 2009
By James Lewis
April 6, 2009 | RealClearPolitics.com
We have a rock star president who for the first time in American history fired the President of a private corporation, General Motors, then immediately flew to Europe with an entourage of 500 courtiers and a worshipful media, bowed waist-deep to the King of Saudi Arabia, and proceeded to accuse his own country of arrogance.
In France, of all places.
Does anybody else think this guy is shockingly ignorant? I wonder if he has every really talked to a concentration camp survivor, or a Cuban refugee, or a boat person from Vietnam? Or a Soviet dissident. Or a survivor or Mao's purges.
Not to mention families with fallen American soldiers in the graveyards. Yes, he's going to Normandie, but will he apologize for our arrogance there, too? Does he really understand anything beyond the PC history of the world? Or will he just lie in his photo op at the American Cemetery at Normandie?
Ahhh, those arrogant Americans. First they rebel against King George III and all the crowned heads of Europe. Then they welcome tens of millions of poor and persecuted people from the Old World. Then they fail to bow down to Europe's greatest figures -- from Napoleon and Otto von Bismarck to the Kaiser, Hitler and Stalin. Then they fight a civil war, losing half a million people to liberate black people in America. Then they diss the man the BBC considers to be the greatest philosopher ever, one Karl Marx, whose followers killed 100 million innocents in the 20th century. And then, to topit all off, they liberate both the Western half of Europe (in 1946) and the Eastern half (in 1989).
What arrogance these Americans have. Either that, or a very, very -- no, stunningly -- ignorant man was just elected president. What kind of man has such an obsessive need to put down his own country? Especially given our real history? Has he ever read an honest history book?
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