When you can’t criticize your own, head off shore.
Have you noticed that an increasing number of US columnists are pointing their fingers, not at what is going on in the homeland, that’s way too contentious, no, they are pointing their fingers at foreign governments and asking, what about human rights, contribution to global warming, trade practices, fealty to democracy, fostering terrorist and on and on.
Curious, isn’t it, that at a time when the US has squandered its might as the world’s only super power; has cheapened its greenback by mounting debt and imbalance of trade; has increasingly shunned a wide range of international agreements, from Kyoto to the International Criminal court; has sunk to new depths in international public opinion, its op-ed pundits are looking elsewhere for its targets.
It’s a lot easier taking pot shots at the leaders of Iran, Syria, China, Russia, Egypt and all the rest than it is confronting the complex and contentious stew of failures that have emasculated the homeland.
Sorry, but when the US talks of human rights, I think of Katrina; when the US talks of fair trade, I think of Brazil’s ethanol and the US’s massive agricultural subsidies; when the US talks of terrorism, I think of Iraq; when the US talks of justice, I think of the International Criminal Court; when the US talks about global warming, I think about US policy; when the US talks about oil, I think of SUV and the pathetic MPG standards.
The trouble with pontificating is that it creates expectations: if you care so much about this in China, why don’t you care about that in Alabama?
It has always been true that you don’t do well in the US if you’re not a patriot. And it’s hard to be seen as a patriot if you criticize the ingredients of the apple pie.
But the pundits have to write about something, right? So who better to write about than the deranged whackos in other countries who are cheating their people while screwing-up the world? It’s wise, entertaining and safe because its about the vile “them,” not the unassailable “us.”
