#World news RSS feed United States RSS feed Comment is free RSS feed Turn autoplay off Turn autoplay on Please activate cookies in order to turn autoplay off * Jump to content [s] * Jump to comments [c] * Jump to site navigation [0] * Jump to search [4] * Terms and conditions [8] Edition: UK * US Sign in Mobile * Your profile * Your details * Your comments * Your clippings * Your lists Sign out Mobile About us * About us * Contact us * Press office * Guardian Print Centre * Guardian readers' editor * Observer readers' editor * Terms of service * Privacy policy * Advertising guide * Digital archive * Digital edition * Guardian Weekly * Buy Guardian and Observer photos Today's paper * The Guardian * G2 features * Comment and debate * Editorials, letters and corrections * Obituaries * Other lives * Sport * MediaGuardian * Subscribe Subscribe * Subscribe to the Guardian * iPhone app * iPad edition * Kindle * Extra * Guardian Weekly * Digital edition * All our services The Guardian home ____________________ [Comment is free] Search * News * Sport * Comment * Culture * Business * Money * Life & style * Travel * Environment * Tech * TV * Video * Dating * Offers * Jobs * Comment is free Comment Hamburgers or foie gras Don't exaggerate the extent of anti-American feeling. The US should identify its real enemies * Share * Tweet this * * * Email * Justin Webb * The Guardian, Thursday 12 April 2007 Jump to comments (…) What is there not to like about the US? There are a number of possible answers, not all printable. But after weeks spent talking to anti-Americans in Paris, Cairo and Caracas, I am more convinced than ever that the anti-American mindset is often just that: a mindset, a prejudice. It is not racism - America has no racial profile to be hated - but nor is it simply a reaction to events and policies. There are those who argue that their hatred of America is caused by American actions - as a Cairo professor put it: "It's the policies, stupid!" This way of thinking puts support of Israel at the top of a list of actions that ends with almost everything George Bush has said or done. But Bush, to me, is an enabler of anti-Americanism, not a creator. This creed is not reactive, it is visceral. Why else would English friends with impeccable anti-racist credentials ask about our children (who grew up in the US) "How will you get rid of their accents." Well, why would we want to? It is a historical fact that anti-Americanism predates the US. It was not invented in reaction to the Monroe Doctrine or the use of marines to pacify Latin America or McDonald's or Hollywood or Bush. It was invented by European biologists who wrote of the New World, shortly after it had been discovered, that nothing good could come of it. It was ghastly. It stank. One cultured scientist, the Dutchman Cornelius de Pauw, put it thus: "Everything found there is degenerate or monstrous." A lot has happened since then, but some people have not noticed, or do not want to. The French writer Bernard Henri Lévy points out that the impetus for much of the European disdain for the US came from the right; from "a fascist tendency in French thought based on fear and hatred of democracy". Part of that hatred lives on in our friends' question about our children's accents: it is a deeply held belief among Europeans that US democracy leads to a coarsening of culture. They think our children sound crass. It does not matter how many Nobel laureates live in the US, or how many novelists or musicians; in the end, the taste America leaves in the mouth is of hamburger, not foie gras. John Bolton looks to me like a hamburger man. The least diplomatic of any recent American diplomat, Bolton, lately of the UN, is the living embodiment of what anti-Americans mean when they say "It's the policies, stupid!". When Bolton growls that "the legitimacy of the US comes from ourselves, we do not require any external validation", you can feel the anti-Americans of the world unite and punch the air with delight; they have their cause and, lo, it is reasonable. So Hubert Védrine, the former French foreign minister, tells me with a sigh that "the Americans are a colonising people with a mission to convert the world". They have forgotten the lessons of history, he says, and it is Europe's job to remind them. I asked John Bolton to comment on this lofty French vision. "Good luck," he chuckled. It is, of course, perfectly reasonable to disagree with Bolton. It's perverse to argue - as some US commentators have - that anti-Americanism is always illegitimate. After all, plenty of Americans dislike Bolton with the same passion. It is also possible to exaggerate the extent of anti-Americanism. Living in the US for the past five years, I assumed the rest of the world was seething with passionate resentment at the way it's been treated. But from a battle-scarred member of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, just out of prison and expecting to go back any day, we heard only polite disdain. He had no interest in America he said, but he did not have any desire to see it destroyed. Of course there are those who would slaughter all Americans, but our interviews suggest that the US needs to be a little more discriminating when judging who its real enemies are. The Harvard political scientist Samuel Huntington has written that "America is not a lie, it is a disappointment". In other words, the promise of the place is real, even though the reality of American action is often depressingly flawed. The US is a project in which the world has a stake; we outsiders created it and we ought to nurture it, not tear it down. · Justin Webb is BBC Radio's chief Washington correspondent; Death to America - Anti-Americanism Examined is on Radio 4 next Monday at 8pm justin.webb@bbc.co.uk * Print this Print this * Share * Contact us Send to a friend Close this popup Sender's name ____________________ Recipient's email address ____________________ Send Your IP address will be logged Share Close this popup Short link for this page: http://gu.com/p/y5mx * StumbleUpon * reddit * Tumblr * Digg * LinkedIn * Google Bookmarks * del.icio.us * livejournal * Facebook * Twitter Contact us Close this popup * Report errors or inaccuracies: reader@guardian.co.uk * Letters for publication should be sent to: letters@guardian.co.uk * If you need help using the site: userhelp@guardian.co.uk * Call the main Guardian and Observer switchboard: +44 (0)20 3353 2000 * + Advertising guide + License/buy our content Article history About this article Close this popup Justin Webb: Hamburgers or foie gras This article appeared on p30 of the Main section section of the Guardian on Thursday 12 April 2007. It was published on guardian.co.uk at 00.06 BST on Thursday 12 April 2007. It was last modified at 00.06 GMT on Saturday 12 January 2008. It was first published at 00.08 BST on Thursday 12 April 2007. World news * United States More from Comment is free on World news * United States * Share * Tweet this * * * Email Comments Click here to join the discussion. We can't load the discussion on guardian.co.uk because you don't have JavaScript enabled. We Own The Weekend * Get £2 off Guardian & Observer Celebrate the Guardian and Observer Weekend by signing up to receive £1 off the Saturday Guardian and £1 off the Observer for two weekends. Watch our video and get your vouchers Today's best video * Lance Armstrong Lance Armstrong tearful in second Oprah interview Disgraced cyclist wells up as he speaks about his son's denials of his doping * Ned Kelly Ned Kelly given memorial service after 132-year wait Legendary folk hero's descendants gather in Victoria, Australia * Kim Dotcom - video Kim Dotcom's internet heroes Entrepreneur hails Google as 'society's most important achievement' * the dreamers We are Obama's dreamers Migrants Kathe, Antonio and Hendry on their goal of US citizenship On Comment is free * Most viewed * Latest Last 24 hours 1. [Bolivian-woman-harvesting-005.jpg] 1. Can vegans stomach the unpalatable truth about quinoa? | Joanna Blythman 2. 2. A big lump of horse ran into your burger? Don't wave it around or everyone'll want one | Charlie Brooker 3. 3. Scottish independence is fast becoming the only option | Kevin McKenna 4. 4. Who will speak up for the universal welfare state now? | John Harris 5. 5. The left in Israel is its own worst enemy | Rachel Shabi 6. More most viewed Last 24 hours 1. [Sharon-Stone-005.jpg] 1. An action-packed thriller is about to unfold in Davos, Switzerland | Aditya Chakraborrtty 2. 2. Obama shifts to the high ground in call for collective action | Gary Younge 3. 3. Assuming the worst: public attitudes to poverty | Editorial 4. 4. Prince Harry, the new Killer Captain | Hadley Freeman 5. 5. Algeria hostage crisis aftermath: only folly lasts for decades | Editorial 6. All today's stories Guardian Bookshop This week's bestsellers 1. Examined Life 1. Examined Life by Stephen Grosz £11.99 2. 2. What Has Nature Ever Done for Us? by Tony Juniper £7.99 3. 3. Play it Again by Alan Rusbridger £15.19 4. 4. Heaven on Earth by Sadakat Kadri £7.99 5. 5. English Affair by Richard Davenport-Hines £16.00 Search the Guardian bookshop ____________________ (Submit) Search comment is free… Latest posts * Aditya Chakrabortty 23min ago An action-packed thriller is about to unfold in Davos, Switzerland Aditya Chakraborrtty: In secret meetings in tiny rooms, the rich plot to get even richer * Gary Younge 26min ago Obama shifts to the high ground in call for collective action Gary Younge: The president's second address was a better speech than his first â and it showed him at his most combative and idealistic Comment from the paper * John Sweeney: Algeria's response to the hostage crisis raises serious questions * John Harris: Who will speak up for the universal welfare state now? * Libby Brooks: Animals: are they good for supper or good companions? Bestsellers from our Guardian stores * halogenheaters - guardianessentials - promo Halogen heaters Halogen heaters for flexible, immediate warmth. Get two for just £44.99 plus p&p. More from Guardian Essentials * icetreads - guardianoffers.co.uk - promo Ice Treads Ice treads simply fit over your shoe. One pair just £12.99, two pairs £19.99. More from Guardian Essentials Sponsored feature guardian jobs Find the latest jobs in your sector: * Arts & heritage * Charities * Education * Environment * Government * Graduate * Health * Marketing & PR * Media * Sales * Senior executive * Social care Browse all jobs ____________________ Search Director of Procurement London | Competitive GUARDIAN NEWS AND MEDIA Top stories in this section Top videos Most popular Today in pictures * sports peronality 2012 BBC Sports Personality of the Year â in pictures Bradley Wiggins capped his remarkable sporting year by taking home the big prize at the ceremony in London * Martin Parr's M Video Christmas party photograph Dinner, dusk and dancing Russians: my best winter shot A glass of wine with a rough sleeper, Santa in trunks, a thousand partying Muscovites ⦠in a My Best Shot special, top photographers pick the image that sums up winter for them * Kimon, a long-tailed monkey grooms a kitten, whom, she treats as her baby, Bintan Island, Indonesia Monkey adopts kitten â in pictures Kimon, an eight-year-old pet female long-tailed monkey, treats a kitten as her baby in Bintan Island, Indonesia * License/buy our content | * Privacy policy | * Terms & conditions | * Advertising guide | * Accessibility | * A-Z index | * Inside the Guardian blog | * About us | * Work for us | * Join our dating site today * © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. * Share * Tweet this * * Quantcast