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Sunday, Jul 12, 2009
A U.S. diplomat who quit his job over Iraq urges mothers to resist the Bush administration's fear-mongering.
Oct 7, 2004 | Dear Soccer Mom,
I just returned from traveling overseas to read that I am supposed to call you "Security Mom" now. Is this true? Newspaper columnists said the world had become so dangerous that you were buying yourself a handgun and would vote for the presidential candidate who said he was strong enough to kill terrorists. Is there any way I can talk you out of this?
I love you, Security Mom. In doing what you did to keep a home and a family together you kept America together. Every time I came back from a diplomatic posting, from Athens or Casablanca or Tel Aviv or Yerevan, you reminded me why I was so proud to be representing America to the world. America's suburbs and small towns were a fantastic place to live, thanks to the community you built. Each overseas embassy I served in put up a miniature version of that, not just to make us less homesick but also to remind us what a fine thing we were protecting, working as diplomats on America's front lines.
Keeping a country or a community going is hard work, just as the president said. You knew without question why that work was necessary. There is nothing on earth more precious than our children and their future. Children do not raise themselves. They need a family and a community, they need values, and they need protection from the dangers of a dangerous world.
Because of you, the city council built sidewalks and fixed the playground and hired the crossing guard. Because of you the school didn't lay off teachers or close down the library when the budget crunch hit. You raised money, reached out to your friends to help you, fought when you needed to fight. You complained about the dangerous potholes and the drug dealers. And you found the time and money needed to give your kids the chance to succeed: Sunday school, music lessons, soccer practice, the sacrifices required to put kids on the track to happiness as good citizens.
But now they tell you that everything has changed. It's no longer enough just to make sure your kids do their homework and don't do drugs and don't get pregnant. Now you're supposed to check your mail for anthrax and keep a supply of duct tape because bearded strangers want to kill your children.
I was a U.S. diplomat for 20 years, one of the best jobs in the world. I talked to foreigners and persuaded them to do what America asked. You've probably heard that foreigners hate America, that they hate our freedom. It's not true, any more than it was true the time your daughter said, "I hate you, Mom." It's a punch in the stomach to hear it, though.
I wish I could take you with me tomorrow to get the real story. Whether you went to Rome or Ramallah on the West Bank (a grim place these days), people would be polite and genuinely happy to talk to an American mom. They don't hate you, or your husband, or America's freedoms. Though they might not admit it to their friends, a lot of them would sneak out for a hamburger at McDonald's if they could.
But what about the public opinion polls that show that foreigners think we're a threat to world peace? The image of the American government is indeed the worst it has ever been during the country's 60 years as a superpower. Iraq has been a terrible public relations nightmare, with Guantánamo and Abu Ghraib, and Iraq isn't the whole story.
Foreigners get their image of the United States from the president. They still love John F. Kennedy. They liked Bill Clinton. They respected George H.W. Bush for the way he brought the world together to liberate Kuwait in 1991. Ronald Reagan's character was attractive even when his policies were not. But the current president projects a different image.
His face and voice and swagger reassure many Americans, but they make him a political liability for our allies. Nothing this president says now can repair the world's image of an ignorant, selfish, irresponsible America, especially after he let his neoconservatives tell the world America has no use for the United Nations or treaties or international law.
America used to be the biggest, bravest, most responsible kid on the international playground, the natural leader. But nothing we diplomats said or did could stop the erosion of that leadership after 2001. We were still the biggest, but suddenly also the meanest. We tell our kids they have to stand up to schoolyard bullies. That's what our foreign friends tell their kids too, and currently they're talking about standing up to us. This is not good for us, and it's not good for the world.
The biggest difference between Europeans and Americans is our sense of fear. European politicians need to keep their budget deficits low. To cut military spending, they are willing to admit to their people that the military threat is gone. If Europeans can feel safe, Americans should feel doubly safe. No one can touch us militarily -- not Russia, not China -- and no one wants to. If we choose to spend our money on high-tech military hardware, that's our business. Europe wonders, however, what we plan to do about the real threats: economic stagnation, climate change, illegal immigration, disease, environmental degradation. And terrorism.
Three years ago some 3,000 people died in New York and Washington, victims of 19 fanatics who believed God had ordered them to strike at America's global dominance by whatever means necessary. The U.S. government had dropped the ball on terrorism. It was busy with Washington politics as usual, and lost sight of the real world outside. The terrorists got lucky, and proved to the world that even the superpower is vulnerable.
Our reaction was normal and appropriate. We went into Afghanistan and destroyed al-Qaida as an organized force. We would have done a better job if the secretary of defense hadn't had his heart already set on Iraq. Still, the terrorist training camps are gone.
