Why world should care about America

It's one of those articles gradually making its way around the Internet and being passed from e-mailbox to e-mailbox.

The column, written by Tony Parsons of the Daily Mirror in England, is usually accompanied by a note saying something to the effect that the Mirror "is a notoriously left-wing daily that is normally not support of the Colonials across the Atlantic."

Published one year after the Sept. 11 attacks, the column is resonating with Americans who are worried, as President George Bush considers going to war in Iraq, about doing the right thing.

And that's exactly what struck Parsons about the temperment of the people of the United States -- that we would be worried about doing the right thing.

"As a lesson in the pitiless cruelty of the human race," Parsons wrote, "Sept. 11 was up there, with Pol Pot's mountain of skulls in Cambodia, or the skeletal bodies stacked like garbage in the Nazi concentration camps. An unspeakable act, so cruel, so calculated and so utterly merciless that surely the world could agree on one thing -- nobody deserves this fate.

"Surely there could be consensus: the victims were truly innocent, the perpetrators truly evil. But to the world's eternal shame, 9/11 is increasingly seen as America's comeuppance. Incredibly, anti-Americanism has increased over the last year."

I'll have to take Parsons' word for it, because I'm not much on the international front. Americans are always fascinated by what others think of us, although we're equally unwilling to do much about it.

"There has always been a simmering resentment to the USA in this country," Parsons continued," -- too loud, too rich, too full of themselves and so much happier than Europeans -- but it has become an epidemic. And it seems incredible to me. More than that, it turns my stomach.

"America is this country's greatest friend and our staunchest ally. We are bonded to the U.S. by culture, language and blood. A little over half a century ago, around half a million Americans died for our freedoms, as well as their own. Have we forgotten so soon? And exactly a year ago, thousands of ordinary men, women and children -- not just Americans, but from dozens of countries -- were butchered by a small group of religious fanatics. Are we so quick to betray them?"

Great Britain's prime minister, Tony Blair, is one of Bush's strongest allies in the initiative against Iraq, of course. Germany and France are standing on the sidelines hoping someone else does the dirty work.

As someone pointed out this week, France is one of those countries "that is always there when they need us."

Parsons points out the United States doesn't really have to ask permission from anybody. Who's going to stop us?

"The truth is that America has behaved with enormous restraint since Sept. 11," he wrote. "America could have turned a large chunk of the world

into a parking lot. That it didn't is a sign of strength. American voices are already being raised against attacking Iraq -- that's what a democracy is for. How many in the Islamic world will have a minute's silence for the slaughtered innocents of 9/11? How many Islamic leaders will have the guts to say that the mass murder of 9/11 was an abomination?"

I'm not beating the drums for war, and I don't think Parsons was, either. He was countering the rampant belief that somehow Americans had brought this attack, this loathing in some parts of world, on themselves. On his side of the ocean, he said, there should be gratitude for the strength that allows Americans to question, debate, be patient and consider the ramifications of being the only superpower on Earth.

"When the news of 9/11 broke on the West Bank, those freedom-loving Palestinians were dancing in the street. America watched all of that -- and didn't push the button. We should thank the stars that America is the most powerful nation in the world.

"The fundamentalist dudes are talking about 'opening the gates of hell,' if America attacks Iraq. Well, America could have opened the gates of hell like you wouldn't believe. The U.S. is the most militarily powerful nation that ever strode the face of the earth. The campaign in Afghanistan may have been less than perfect and the planned war on Iraq may be misconceived. But don't blame America for not bringing peace and light to these wretched countries. How many democracies are there in the Middle East, or in the Muslim world? You can count them on the fingers of one hand -- assuming you haven't had any chopped off for minor shoplifting."

This is the kind of patriotism, expressed by an Englishman, that reminds me why I'm proud to be an American. It isn't flag-waving or supporting the president because he's the president. It's the optimism of Americans who believe they can be a beacon in the world -- not a bludgeon. That freedom means choosing for yourself, not having someone choose for you. And that freedom to choose carries an equal weight of responsibility.

"America is hated," wrote Parsons, "because it is what every country wants to be -- rich, free, strong, open, optimistic. Not ground down by the past, or religion, or some caste system. America is the best friend this country ever had and we should start remembering that."

Barry Smith is editor of the Nevada Appeal.