WSJ: The Myth of 'Squandered Sympathy' (Crafty European elites at work)

[Barrett808]

The Myth of 'Squandered Sympathy'
European elites were anti-American long before the liberation of Iraq.

BY JOHN ROSENTHAL
Thursday, October 14, 2004 12:01 a.m. EDT

In the past two months, with John Kerry and the Democratic Party attempting to prove the superiority of their credentials to conduct America's foreign policy, we have heard much of the legend of the squandered sympathy. According to this legend, in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 the U.S. enjoyed the heartfelt sympathy of the world, only to see this capital of goodwill frittered away by the successive faux pas of an inept and arrogant Bush administration and then definitively exhausted by the launching of an illegitimate war on Iraq in defiance of "world public opinion."

The Democratic National Convention in July set the tone. In the absence of much else to say on foreign policy matters, speakers at the convention returned to the theme of the squandered sympathy again and again. Jimmy Carter invoked it:

After 9/11, America stood proud, wounded but determined and united. A cowardly attack on innocent civilians brought us an unprecedented level of cooperation and understanding around the world. But in just 34 months, we have watched with deep concern as all this goodwill has been squandered by a virtually unbroken series of mistakes and miscalculations.

Ted Kennedy alluded to it:

The eyes of the world were on us and the hearts of the world were with us after September 11--until this administration broke that trust. We should have honored, not ignored, the pledges we made. We should have strengthened, not scorned, the alliances that won two World Wars and the Cold War.

And Al Sharpton--the extent of whose expertise in international questions was made painfully clear during the Democratic primary debate in New Hampshire when he was unable to distinguish the Federal Reserve Board from the International Monetary Fund--elaborated upon it in characteristically grandiloquent style:

Look at the current view of our nation worldwide and the results of our unilateral foreign policy. We went from unprecedented international support and solidarity on September 12, 2001, to hostility and hatred as we stand here tonight. How did we squander the opportunity to unite the world for democracy and to commit to a global fight against hunger and disease? We did it with a go-it-alone foreign policy based on flawed intelligence.

In the meanwhile, a group of prominent Democratic foreign-policy notables, including former Clinton national security adviser Anthony Lake and former Gore foreign-policy adviser Leon Fuerth, founded a "527" organization named "Win Back Respect"--echoing the official Kerry/Edwards campaign slogan "Strong at Home, Respected in the World"--with the purpose, in effect, of disseminating the legend through a series of television ads.

(more)

http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110005748

[Unstuck In Time]

1. Oh, yeah. The planet-wide outpourings of support after 9/11...

... were all a collective illusion.

Seriously, WSJ's opinionjournal is a dank, dark pit where neocons spawn. Best to ignore it.

[Elidor]

2. Shorter John Rosenthal:

The "outpouring of sympathy" after September 11 was really just one cheese-eating surrender-monkey journalist and his liberal echo chamber. The reality is, the world still hated us, and for that, we must kick their asses.

[Unstuck In Time]

3. Why does John Rosenthal hate America? n/t