On Cultural Myopia
There is a quote from Colin Powell floating around the net. It is of an exchange of his allegedly with the Archbishop of Canterbury. It's not quoted quite right, but it's close enough to be both real and troubling. The wrong quote is:
When in England at a fairly large conference, Colin Powell was asked by the Archbishop of Canterbury if our plans for Iraq were just an example of empire building by George Bush.
He answered by saying that, "Over the years, the United States has sent many of its fine young men and women into great peril to fight for freedom beyond our borders. The only amount of land we have ever asked for in return is enough to bury those that did not return."
It became very quiet in the room.
My response to this when I first read it was "It's a good thing he didn't say this at Wounded Knee."
The Bush Administration is fond of referring to some of thier tactics as "cowboy diplomacy." When they say that, they have an image in their heads. An image of a virtuous, single man against unestimable odds, working to a just end. This is largely because the majority of Americans have a Santa Clause view of the cowboy. A fiction, necessary for lore -- but unique to our perspective.
When the rest of the world hears "cowboy diplomacy", they hear technologically advanced, ideologically driven, culturally insensitive Americans here to blow things up they don't fully understand.
Of course, neither side is right.
But that doesn't matter.
Even though both sides are false, the Bush Administration's foreign policy validates both sides by not even understanding that other countries have these perceptions. If they do realize that this is how we are perceived, it seems so ridiculous to the Bush people that they reject it out of hand. This makes them say stupid, insensitive and politically damaging things like the quote above and then patting themselves on the back for it.
Much like the blog below which mentions "The Iraqi Regime", the Bush Administration is surprising populated with foreign relations lightweights that reinforces the international stereotypes of Americans as culturally insensitive, unsophisticated, neo-nanderthals. Obviously this sweeping generalization is not true. However, if you take a moment to view the Bush people's rhetoric from the eyes of people who are not Americans, you can quickly see how the Bush rhetoric reinforces the stereotypes.
It seems nearly calculated to do so.
Powell's actual remarks are indeed much more sensitive. They stipulate that he is speaking of the last 100 years. They stipulate many things. But the quote that has been distributed and celebrated in the US is cowboy diplomacy. It seems that our internal rhetoric is more damning to us than any false propaganda could hope to be.
