News we all know from Reuters, with a followup question:
From Reuters:
When the king of Jordan postponed this week's meeting with President Bush, the snub revealed only a fraction of the humiliation felt by Washington's Arab friends.
Constrained by protocol and unwilling to burn bridges with the most powerful country in the world, Arab leaders like King Abdullah can only hint at the dismay they felt when Bush changed U.S. policy last week, diplomats and analysts say.
The blow was particularly hard for Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who met Bush on April 12 and was still in the United States two days later when Bush gave two key and sensitive concessions to visiting Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
"They are very much upset. Bush is striking at the hearts of their people and this makes King Abdullah and Mubarak really angry," said an Arab ambassador, who asked not to be identified.
"I'm sure he (Mubarak) feels wounded because it seems like a big cheat. It's a slap on the back of the neck -- the most humiliating thing in our culture," said analyst Mohamed al-Sayed Said of the al-Ahram Center in Cairo.
Mubarak told the Houston Chronicle last week he was shocked by Bush's promises to Sharon. He told the French newspaper Le Monde this week the Americans had never before been so detested in the Arab world.
So, here's the question - what can average Americans do about this? Are we hostage to the actions of our government and other governments for the perception of ourselves as Americans?
During the Cold War, we were always told that beyond the government and the military of Communist countries, there were innocent people, yearning to be free, to be in a democracy. That tale was told to us by our own government.
Is the tale of a varied and politically diverse America, with considerable disagreements on foreign policy issues, being told to other populations in other countries by their leaders? Is it obvious that we are not all walking in step with George Bush on such foreign policy issues?
And if other countries' leaders tell their citizens this, is it believable?
And if not - what can we do, to share our uncertainty and/or disagreement with our own current leadership with the citizens of other countries? How do we help citizens around the world to separate their disdain for our current government from their opinion of the lives of average Americans?