Update [2005-3-6 10:3:53 by Jerome a Paris]: I have started a new diary to continue the discussion:
Europe 'losing hope' about America: a follow up.
I'm sorry for the harsh words; you know I've been around this site for a while now and I don't think I can be categorised as radical, or provocative, or anti-American in any way in my views, but the above seems to me to sum up the reaction in Europe to the latest US fuckup in Iraq, i.e. the shooting of liberated hostage Giuliana Sgrena and the killing of Nicola Calipari, the secret service agent who had negotiated her liberation and protected her - to his death - with his body.
I'll be the first to acknowledge that the facts are not yet clear - whether that event was the result of bad communications, someone panicking or something more sinister cannot be ascertained at the time I write.
It's just the last item in a long, long list, and the reaction is pretty much the same everywhere:
Stupid fucking war.
Stupid fucking Americans.
Stupid fucking Americans who don't care about the rest of the world but use self-righteous violence whenever they feel like it, kill, maim, destroy without a thought, all in the name of "freedom".
Stupid fucking Americans who, if we dare protest, call us hypocritical, morally bankrupt, Saddam-loving we-saved-your-sorry-asses-twice-last-century degenerate Euro-whiners.
Stupid fucking Americans who voted for Bush - the warmonger, the torturer, the crusader, the born again obscurantist, the irresponsible spendthrift, the profiteer of their fears, with his entourage of criminals and lackeys.
Stupid fucking Americans who have managed to alienate even their grateful friends the Poles and their criminal lackey Berlusconi.
Guess what, we're losing the will to complain. It's useless. We've lost hope. The sad events of yesterday have become typical of today's America, and we don't expect anything else anymore. We don't trust you today (as a country and an administration), and we know we shouldn't expect any different in the foreseeable future.
And I know that you Kossacks should not be put in that same bag, that you did your best to bring about another outcome, but America, your America, is not acting like you. Sanity is officially no longer an American value.
America is the country that tortures, and that shoots-first-asks-questions-later in the minds of the rest of the world. Americans are still our friends and our business partners, but for how long?
And I am French, therefore highly suspect of anti-Americanism, and I would not write this if I did not keep on hearing this from Italians, Spaniards, Germans and Brits. Brits, for God's sake - they seem to hate you Americans more than us French these days, which is no means feat, let me tell you.
We don't admire America any more. We don't envy America anymore. We beg you to listen to the harsh lessons we've learnt - thanks to you - half a century ago when we almost self-detroyed (and you saved us and helped us reform our ways). We pity you, and we're scared - for the Iraqis being killed, for anyone that disagrees with you and does not have the chance to be backed by nuclear, oil or commercial power, for whoever will be next, and for the whole planet should anyone make you even crazier by succeeding in a new terrorist attack against you.
Please, Kossacks, you are our last hope. Please take your country back from the zombies. Please bring back our high expectations and hopes. Please stop the madness.