ark og ulandskr201103-3.htm

 

 

 

 

 

 

What the USA Turns its Back On

So there is an element of self-interest here too? The threat not to go through the UN came from the pre-emption doctrine in President Bush’s National Security Strategy, which again stemmed from 9/11. Do you think the Europeans underestimate the change 9/11 brought about in American politics?

KR: Yes, absolutely. I have heard that all over the place. Europeans who have gone to America after 9/11 and come back – from prime ministers down to ordinary people – told me that they were shocked when they saw all the American flags waving. They realized that all the stuff people are concerned about here, like locking up people in Guantanamo, Americans don’t give a damn about that: we were attacked. There’s a real feeling that we’re at war in the US. “We don’t give a damn if a couple of hundred guys, who were picked up in Afghanistan, are sitting down in Guantanamo not being brought to trial: who cares, they are terrorists. They don’t deserve the same rights!”

The outrage in Europe about the people being held in Guantanamo doesn’t resonate in the States. Now you get a little bit of concern that [the government] has gone too far in restricting civil liberties, but not that much: most Americans recognize that things have had to change.

Whereas in most of these European countries, like in France with the Algerians, the Italians with the red brigades, the Brits with IRA, the Greeks with November 17, Spain with ETA – they are used to bombs being set off. They are used to a certain level of violence, criminals doing things like kidnapping people.

But only a certain level of violence?

KR: A certain level, because obviously 9/11 was big. But their attitude is “terrorism is something you have to get used to”. America has always been protected against this by the two oceans: USA has always been an open society. You can fly into New York and travel by car across fifty states ... it’s an incredibly open place. But terrorists can use that. When you’re in America policemen have no right to stop you and ask to see your ID. They do that in Europe, and Europeans are just used to living with a certain level of police-states and terrorism. Recently, I was in Holland, doing a story on Dutch Moslems. The Moslem students complained about how the police was always asking them to move along if they were standing on a street corner: that’s discrimination. But my Dutch translator said: “they’re the police; you have to do what they say!” But you don’t have to do what the police say: if the police are wrong you have rights! It is a completely different mindset here. It is a different view of liberty here.

When I explain to friends who come here to go shopping that the department stores are closed on Sundays they’re shocked: “How can they be closed on Sundays!?” I say: “because it’s a law, they have to close”. And they say: “but it’s a private store, how can the government tell a store when to open? If that store wants to make money and stay open until midnight that’s the business of the store?” I say: “Well, not in France, here it’s the business of the government.” [laughs]. What if people want to work, all day and all night? Well, they can’t, they have to work only 35 hours a week. My American friends can’t get their minds around that! That’s the whole idea of the American dream: an immigrant who opens a small grocery store in New York or Washington or some place, who works there all the time to make money. You know, that would probably be illegal over here!

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Photo (illustration): BrunoInBaghdad.com

Photo (portrait):
Francesca Luk