Some find America fascinating, others abhor it, but virtually no one feels indifferent about the superpower. For months, the question of who will become the next president has riveted people around the globe. He will inherit responsibility for a country whose global reputation is battered. Full Story »
Posted by Peter Barnett
Perhaps somewhat rambling piece that intends to provide a rationale as to why the USA is a paradox to the rest of the world. Nevertheless, I suspect that few (outside of the USA) would 'have a problem' with this rationale.
Europe usually responds to bad news from the United States with a mixture of outward sorrow and hidden jubilation; the Germans call it “schadenfreude.” This ambiguous ... More »
Superb assessment of the situation at hand in the US. The author sees the "war" on "terror" as reckless, inconsistent and largely unproductive or worse. I think US "think tanks" produce a great deal of rubbish, but the author rates them more highly. The US has a vastly expensive war machine, but a "third-world" infrastructure - - a view perfhaps a bit strong, though the absurd squandering of government revenue on armaments cannot be denied, when tens of millions of Americans lack basic health care.
I think the military-industrial complex poses a great threat to the national security of the US, and to the Republic itself. Most American lack the intellectual and moral rigor to apprehend the essential absurdity of 4% of the world's population spending nearly as much on "defense" as the remaining 96% of the population of the planet. Collective insanity on a truly astonishing scale.
This opinion piece has minimal journalistic merit. It is from one of the prime hate-American outlets in Europe and does not reflect opinion in Germany at all. Most European leaders urgently want McCain elected, since Obama gives every indication of repeating the trade barrier policies of Hoover. The U.S. reputation globally is much better than in 2000, with many more governments now more pro-American than before, including Germany, France, India, Canada, nearly all of Africa and Latin America, and the U.N. One could go on, but there are whole web sites devoted to debunking Spiegel and its partners!
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