Secretary of State John Kerry is concerned about the tone:
Kerry said that everywhere he goes, every leader he meets asks about what is happening in America.
“They cannot believe it. I think it is fair to say that they’re shocked. They don’t know where it’s taking the United States of America,” Kerry said in an interview on the Sunday CBS news show “Face The Nation.”
“It upsets people’s sense of equilibrium about our steadiness, about our reliability, and to some degree I must say to you, some of the questions, the way they’re posed to me, it’s clear to me that what’s happening is an embarrassment to our country.”
And he’s not talking about the Democratic side of the contest:
Kerry was asked out the impact abroad of the Republican campaign with its calls for bans on Muslim immigrants, surveillance of Muslim neighborhoods and the return of waterboarding, an interrogation practice regarded as torture.
He might have been asked about other things, too, like promises to “bomb the shit” out of Arabs, assassinate family members of suspected terrorists, turn the whole region into glowing radioactive glass, and so on.
That’s gotta be awkward when you’re sitting down with the King of Jordan or some Emir in the Gulf States.
On the other hand, if you’re a recruiter from ISIS and you’re making a pitch that America is out to get Muslims and needs to get smacked with a few good-sized suicide attacks, well, that stuff is pure gold.
So, I think this is quite a bit more serious than just being some kind of inconvenient embarrassment.
Brits to America: You’re Idiots! Well, 51 percent of you, anyway.
Tend to doubt that a majority of Americans much care what the world thinks of us. Exceptional is what we are.
Brits are similar when it comes to the EU, demanding special treatment or they’ll quit etc.
Ah, but Republicans will tell that it’s just the terrible yoke of political correctness being overthrown.
“Kerry was asked out the impact abroad of the Republican campaign with its calls for bans on Muslim immigrants, surveillance of Muslim neighborhoods and the return of waterboarding, an interrogation practice regarded as torture.”
US politics is lagging the manifestation of right-wing fascism and idiocy … after 9/11 Islamophobia was spreading from the state of Israel outward. Anti-immigration parties have become mainstream across Europe. NATO policy of agression in Libya and in Eastern Europe did the rest. Because of austerity measures, The Netherlands has cut its budget for development of third world countries in half … NATO is now putting political pressure on European states to (nearly) double its defense spending. [Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon, United Technologies must have done their homework and have multiple projects ready to be signed]
The failure in Syria and the Turks who are using the refugees as a scourge for Europe, sealed the casket. As a renewed bombing campaign (earlier it was Al Qaeda) across the capitals in Europe, it not only splits “Old” and “New” Europe [thank you Rumsfeld] but has cemented a strong right-wing party system.
The dumb 51% already exists in Europe … Geert Wilders as prime minister anyone?
John Kerry should be the last person to whine about this topic. Perhaps he could shed his tears on the shoulders of HRC, she knows all about Libya and the untimely death of Muammar Gaddafi. Also the overthrow of Assad was Neocon policy continued under the responsibility of Obama. With Easter we have to thank a former KGB agent for saving Orthodox Christians and minorities in Syria as the SAA reconquers Palmyra.
What does the bible say as parable: “Reaping what you sow?”
I call it blow-back. War is a poison for society and human kind. It was so much easier for European leaders to go along with Barack Obama as president after eight years of George Bush. Too bad Obama didn’t rid his administration of neocon advisors.
○ Baghdad soccer stadium hit by suicide attacker – 41 killed
○ Taliban splinter group targeted Christians at Easter in Lahore, Pakistan – 63 killed
US media covers the death of IS second in command … what a bs.
Speaking of “blowback” Christopher Simpson’s BLOWBACK is a good place for the casual internationalist to start finding out about why Ukraine is like it is.
That comment is literally incoherent: it’s a whole bunch of partially or wholly unrelated issues jumbled together.
I’m no fan of Israel, but the idea that Islamophobia is spreading from them is silly. Likewise, anti-immigrant parties have been in Europe for over 40 years. And the US intervention in Libya was a stupid and destructive neocon exercise, but the idea that it’s remotely comparable to banning a billion Muslims from entering the US is, frankly, silly.
I take it your are not arguing there is no Islamophobia in Israel? I do recall the Yahoo comparing Hamas to ISIS and vice versa. Not a lot of love between Israel and Muslim countries.
Of course there’s massive Islamophobia in Israel, and it’s clearly getting worse. But I don’t see any way to argue that Islamophobia is coming from Israel.
Only in the sense that the Israeli right and the American religious right, which plays no small role in American politics, have been in lock step for decades.
But the position of Muslims in the USA is utterly different from their position in Israel or the occupies territories.
Now there’s a lot of Islamophobia in Europe as well, for different reasons, which have little to do with Israel. And that’s having an influence here.
Islamophonia in Russia has grown tremendously under Putin — that’s relevant to Trump, whose such good buddies with Putin.
Islamophobia has gotten much worse in India under the Hindu rightists.
Probably the bulk of Islamophobia in the world today is one of the consequences of American policy in Afghanistan since Reagan.
Then there is the Israeli right. Seems you gotta be the right religion or a servant to live there.
That attitude has always existed among a subset of Israelis. What’s changed is the prevalence.
Politically there’s been a big shift in Israeli demographics in the last couple decades, as the old guard with roots in Western Europe is being thrown out by parties that cater to newer, far more right-wing Israelis who come from areas like Eastern Europe.
This is an important point.
Chechnya figures prominently in Islamophobia in Russia. Restoration of Christianity in Russia with the fall of the USSR may have aggravated the situation for adherents of either faith.
Whatever exists in Germany is a product of immigrant workers from Turkey.
France and Belgium have second generation immigrants from N. Africa that that haven’t integrated into the larger indigenous community.
Modern India was crafted to exclude large geographical Muslim populations; hence, Pakistan and once was East Pakistan, now Bangladesh. Thus, conflict between the majority Hindu population and Muslims is quite an old one.
Brussels is working on 4th generation immigrants from Africa. I googled for a min. trying to find out how many Muslims in Brussels and came up with estimates between 10-25%. I find that odd. Watched some cable coverage and noted not one police/military was a person of any color besides white. Me thinks Brussels maybe the Ferguson of the Belgium.
Here’s more on Belgium. Those that have gone off to fight in Syria or involved in the Brussels or Paris attacks were not fourth generation immigrants. Most seemed to have been born in Belgium or France of immigrant parents, but at least two immigrated as young children with their parents.
You’re visual observation of the various Belgian police forces is correct. Very few are other than white.
“Islamophonia in Russia has grown tremendously under Putin …”
Is this yr gut feeling because of the hysterical anti-Putin propaganda supported by US Government and western media?
I don’t see any, any (!) Western leader take part in the celebratory re-opening of a Grand Mosque. Remember New York City which has repeated all over Europe and the United States.
○ Moscow Cathedral Mosque to Re-open a 20-fold In Size
○ Twisted Minds In Republican-Jewish Circles of Anti-Muslim Hate
[see Debbie Schussel’s (D) comment on Rachel Corrie]
○ ADL Backs Bigots on Ground Zero Mosque
○ Islam in Russia Today
Think DiT is arguing that the Islamophobia that has emerged in Europe isn’t spreading from Israel.
Europe’s always had issues with xenophobic politicians and parties (National Front, etc). And Muslims weren’t ever really immune to that. Nicholas Sarkozy practically made a living on bashing Muslims over headscarves.
It’s just that the rise of terrorism and lots of immigration into European cities from the Muslim world has shifted the focus from immigrants broadly — the Brits with their “Polish plumbers,” etc — to a narrower focus on Muslims, and those things have given a lot of the xenophobic parties an in with a broader group of people via fear.
The seeds of this all pre-date of Netanyahu’s current band of lunatics.
Right, and it’s just common sense, because Israel does not exactly have Europe’s ear these days.
What age are you … a 16 yr old?
Before commenting do your research, start by googling Fear Inc. or backtrack and read some of my diaries of the past decade here @BooMan.
Ariel Sharon, Binyamin Netanyahu, et all knew exactly how to perpetuate war in the region … that’s what the PNAC was all about. The so-called War on Terror by George Bush and his Neocon advisors took care of the implementation.
Geert Wilders is paid by the Israel lobby in the US and persons supporting him who happen to be mostly dual US-Israeli ctizens .
See also the life-line of Ayaan Hirsi Ali … the incoherence is strictly due to yr lack of knowledge on the issue.
In my view, it’s not that Israel has nothing to do with Islamophobia, it’s just that it goes way beyond just Israel.
Because of the longstanding alliance between the American religious right and the Israeli right, our Islamophobia may have an Israeli “flavor”, but it’s blended with a homegrown American nativism, which you can see with Trump, one of its big leaders.
American policy in the Middle East hasn’t been just about Israel. It’s been about oil. In many ways Israel is a fig leaf. Unfortunately, an all too willing fig leaf.
I also see significant changes in US policy towards Israel and the whole Middle East under Obama. Against great resistance.
Obama understands that the most important dynamic in the Middle East is not Israel vs Arabs. It’s Sunni vs. Shia.
○ Israel and Islamophobia | Tikun Olam |
○ Fear Inc. Funding Islamophobia in America
○ Clarion Project’s New Islamophobic Film, “Honor Diaries”
One can start from PM Ariel Sharon and the 9/11 attacks on America!
○ AIPAC, ADL refuse to condemn inclusion of ethnic cleansers in new Israel government | EI – 2003 |
○ Netanyahu on the day of the attacks on America: “It’s good for Israel.” | NY Times |
I was in Edmonton, Canada last month and many of the Canadians I was with were all asking the same thing: What is the matter with you people?!
It’s bad enough that we have a reputation as a nation of gunslingers. The people I talked to were horrified at the number of shootings we have. I tried to explain that we really aren’t all carrying sidearms and machine guns, but it sounded lame even as I said it because a lot of Americans are.
As for politics, I was embarrassed to admit that a TV huckster/business mogul/asshole was actually leading the race for President, and had a good shot at the nomination. I couldn’t explain that away, either, any more than I could explain Cruz or Rubio. It all really defies logical, sane explanation.
The frineds I have there have graciously offered me asylum should the worst case scenario happen. That’s the best news I got so far.
. . . /asshole [is] actually leading the [Republican primary] race for President, and [has] a good shot at the nomination.”
Don’t mean to nit-pick, but that’s an important distinction.
Drumpf is not, by any measure, “actually leading the race for President”.
Speaking of Kerry, he still isn’t sharing:
https:/consortiumnews.com/2016/03/25/kerry-balks-at-supplying-mh-17-data
Surely all these smart politicians aren’t that surprised. These are the ugly Americans who as tourists act like damn fools in their countries.
Well, there’s a difference between ugly American tourists and politicians, diplomats, and other State Dept employees.
I do think that both the politicians of various nations and their citizens are watching this whole sh*t show with some trepidation. Yes, politicians and politically astute citizens world-wide are well aware that the USA GOP is pretty nuts, but this whole primary season has taken things to another level.
I’d guess that there is some genuine concern about how things will play out should the GOP candidate – really, doesn’t matter all that much if it’s Trump or Cruz; they’re both awful – win the election.
That said, I’m sure politicians elsewhere will figure out how to deal with it, but I can see where they’d have concern.
I used to live in Australia for quite a few years and still have very good friends there. They’re well aware of how awful the USA GOP is, but they’ve all expressed trepidation to me… all whilst apologizing for Murdoch… even though Murdoch is OUR problem now.
At the recent Paris climate talks, I remember various times when calls were made for the USA GOP politicians to wake up and smell the coffee about climate change. The US GOP has dutifully propagandized/brainwashed their rubes into believing that climate change is liberal hoax, which gives the rubes another opportunity to bash dastardly stupid liberals. When they hear that other nations are VERY concerned about climate change, it’s just another opportunity to point and mock them.
It reminds me of joke my mother used to tell about the overly proud mom watching her son in his high school marching band: “Oh look: everyone in the band is out of step, except my Johnny.” That’s how GOP voters have been trained/brainwashed to view their very distorted version of “reality.” Everyone else worldwide is “in on” the “liberal hoax” about climate change. Only the GOP is “in step” and gets the “real” reality about what’s happening with our climate.
It’s sad state of affairs.
I read somewhere (and no time to search out links) that allegedly Iran has said that they’re pretty sanguine about dealing with a GOP POTUS, should either Trump or Cruz win (esp Trump). The article said that Iran found the Obama Admin to be very challenging to work with; that they “knew their stuff” and were hard negotiators. The article said that Iran felt it was far easier to deal with WBushCo bc they were simplistic and not good negotiators, and that Trump (or Cruz) would be more like that.
So yeah: gee whiz, who’s better for the USA? Who’s going to “make America great” – whatever the eff that means. gah
Probably meant more corruptible.
Yes the world has a very real concern about the GOP in America.
There are two ways to handle this.
1- Say that this is where the US medical care for mental ill is very inadequate.
2- Ask those countries if they would like for the US to send all the GOP members to them? The US is trying to get a handle on the situation.Any country that feels it can do better come and get the GOP members, they can gladly have them.