Daoud Kuttab is a Palestinian journalist. He was born in Jerusalem in 1955. Presently he is a visiting professor at Princeton University in the United States. Mr. Kuttab is the former director of the Institute of Modern Media at Al Quds University in Ramallah, Palestine and the founder of AmmanNet, the Arab world's first internet radio station. His personal web page is www.daoudkuttab.com
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Daoud Kuttab
Jerusalem/Amman, Jordan
Daoud Kuttab is a Palestinian journalist. He was born in Jerusalem in 1955. Presently he is a visiting professor at Princeton University in the United States.
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I'm a Kraut and I stand with the United States of America - the greatest Nation ever! If someone is against America, then he is against me too!
Here in Germany, and also in Europe, the NAZIS and Commmunists are still alive, therefore, it's no wonder, that anti-Americanism is wide spreaded across Europe. The reason is, is that the news-media are censored, so the people do not know, what's really going on. All news they get are one-sided.
However, Americans should give a big nothing about what the European hardheads are talking, because it's part of the NAZI-Propaganda here in Europe, especially here in Germany. In addition, Europe is a safe haven for terrorists.
America is doing great and there's nothing wrong with it! Iran is a dictatorship and the people over there cannot wait to get liberated. So what?
Thanks to the finest and brightest men and women of the United States - Our Troops!
The world's ELITE is affraid that with the rise of China, India, Brazil and the rest of the world the natural resources necessary for wasteful living are threatened - so they try to manufacture reasons how they should take steps to insure their own supply chains. As The USA is the heaviest user of the earth's resources per capita, has the biggest Defence Budget, and the most likely to invade other countries it is the most most dangerous, as it has the most to loose.
Moreover, relatively speaking the USA's demographics is different from Europe, for the USA has the largest division between well to do and marginal people [UK is second], still has almost replacement rate fertility and still has a lower median age than Europe or Japan. This permits the USA to have a great voluntary army made up mostly of lower/lowest class of people, with the least education [the newest recruits are made up of 12% from the criminal class] - thus easily misled by propagandist spin about the value of other people's life [we do not count the dead in Iraq].
The foreign policy of the USA is driven by arrogant self-interest, where the aspiration and opinions of others is no consequence, if it does not concur with the received wisdom of the USA POLITICAL POWER [of the day].
It is not to say that the Irani leadershp is made up of angels, but Iran has stayed within its borders, has not attacked anybody - and generally stays out of other people's way. That it offers aid to Hamas [democratically elected entity] and Hezbullah, a resistance movement created out of Israel's occupation of Lebanon, is reasonable, for both groups are fighting for democratic reform. The USa on the other hand only talks democracy when convenient spin, and regularly attacks democraticly elected groups if they do not toe USA line. The USA also supports nopw, and did for the last many years all kinds of non-democratic governments, as long as they toe the line [Mubarak, the Saud fanily, Noriega, Dadam Hussein, etc].
Europe had enough of war, they lost too much. The USA has had only a couple of attacks on its soil, with marginal loss of life. The present war in Iraq/Afganistan hardly touches anyone [as % of population], and nearly none of the ruling elite. So war is a great game, can make lots of money, and that is the end of involvement for the rulig class.
Iran does not wish for war, for the last war is too close, and directly involved a large % of the population, with usually fatalities in most families.
Based on the baove analysis it is patently obvious that the danger is the USA with often unforseen consequences of its unitary actions: the whole middle east could go up in flames, with dire consequences for the whole world.
It is unthinkable that the rest of the world leaders don't know what's going on in the US. They do know, they do read history. THey can see who is influencing this President, and who controls the media and who is fomenting the war.Did not Olmert just travel to Washington to scream for the invasion of Iran? Are the rest of the world leaders being politically correct? Are they, too, bought out by the same people as the US congress? Is AIPAC worldwide?
What.
""Occupation" doesn't mean today what it did during the time of the Prophet... When the Prophet was alive, "occupation" meant that your officials were killed, your children sold into slavery, women raped and men driven from their homes and pressed into service or killed... No, "occupation" just isn't what it used to be." -- RDJRDJ, judging by what you write, THE PROPHET IS ALIVE AND WELL!
foreign military occupations
-----------
I'm all for ending the Palestinian occupation by a negotiated solution and for pressing hard for people in the area to make that the priority, despite those rejectionists who find peace the greatest threat to them, somehow. The PA has had elections and took EU money to support an effort to craft a Constitution - let them work with the Quartet to pressure Israel back to the negotiating table, instead of doing whatever it is they are now...
"Occupation" doesn't mean today what it did during the time of the Prophet.
When the Prophet was alive, "occupation" meant that your officials were killed, your children sold into slavery, women raped and men driven from their homes and pressed into service or killed.
Today, occupation means that you get your odious national debt whiped out at a Paris Club meeting, you get tens of billions of dollars in international aid and reconstruction, a fully-funded chance to re-establish officials responsible and accountable to periodic elections, enough regional autonomy to do international development deals, every human rights group checking up on every detail of every official action, and every diplomat in the world paying attention to your local political problems ...
I find most interesting the argument presented so clearly in the last two paragraphs. It seems to me that it should help explain to Americans why many non-Americans (not only Europeans) are so critical of them.
It is not that "people always picking on Americans" has become sport and entertainment, it is not a matter of "people being selective in their criticism, never seeing what is wrong with nations other than the US", it has nothing to do with most "people being purely and simply anti-American" (although some are -- yet "anti WHICH Americans?", one may ask). No, whether Americans like it or not, they must understand that the implications of their nation's foreign policy are such that they often affect adversely whole regions of the world, when it is not the world as a whole. Those policies become for many a matter of life and death. Hence the perceived threat, and the criticism. How could it be otherwise?
It's all very well to keep on trying to convince the world that Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, North Korea, etc., in turn, "represent a threat not only to the US but to the whole world"... as the Bush Administration has been attempting to do for years now... but that piece of propaganda does not seem to give the results expected by the Administration. Outside the US, most people hearing that will smile, laugh, but won't "buy"... It is extravagant (and considered threatening) to always claim that enemies of the US are necessarily everybody's enemies.
PostGlobal is an interactive conversation on global issues moderated by Newsweek International Editor Fareed Zakaria and David Ignatius of The Washington Post. It is produced jointly by Newsweek and washingtonpost.com, as is On Faith, a conversation on religion. Please send your comments, questions and suggestions for PostGlobal to Lauren Keane, its editor and producer.
All Comments (7)
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February 2, 2008 3:38 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on February 2, 2008 15:38
I'm a Kraut and I stand with the United States of America - the greatest Nation ever! If someone is against America, then he is against me too!
Here in Germany, and also in Europe, the NAZIS and Commmunists are still alive, therefore, it's no wonder, that anti-Americanism is wide spreaded across Europe. The reason is, is that the news-media are censored, so the people do not know, what's really going on. All news they get are one-sided.
However, Americans should give a big nothing about what the European hardheads are talking, because it's part of the NAZI-Propaganda here in Europe, especially here in Germany. In addition, Europe is a safe haven for terrorists.
America is doing great and there's nothing wrong with it! Iran is a dictatorship and the people over there cannot wait to get liberated. So what?
Thanks to the finest and brightest men and women of the United States - Our Troops!
Support the Troops at www.AmericaSupportsYou.mil
God bless America, Our Troops and their Families!
February 18, 2007 1:35 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on February 18, 2007 01:35
The world's ELITE is affraid that with the rise of China, India, Brazil and the rest of the world the natural resources necessary for wasteful living are threatened - so they try to manufacture reasons how they should take steps to insure their own supply chains. As The USA is the heaviest user of the earth's resources per capita, has the biggest Defence Budget, and the most likely to invade other countries it is the most most dangerous, as it has the most to loose.
Moreover, relatively speaking the USA's demographics is different from Europe, for the USA has the largest division between well to do and marginal people [UK is second], still has almost replacement rate fertility and still has a lower median age than Europe or Japan. This permits the USA to have a great voluntary army made up mostly of lower/lowest class of people, with the least education [the newest recruits are made up of 12% from the criminal class] - thus easily misled by propagandist spin about the value of other people's life [we do not count the dead in Iraq].
The foreign policy of the USA is driven by arrogant self-interest, where the aspiration and opinions of others is no consequence, if it does not concur with the received wisdom of the USA POLITICAL POWER [of the day].
It is not to say that the Irani leadershp is made up of angels, but Iran has stayed within its borders, has not attacked anybody - and generally stays out of other people's way. That it offers aid to Hamas [democratically elected entity] and Hezbullah, a resistance movement created out of Israel's occupation of Lebanon, is reasonable, for both groups are fighting for democratic reform. The USa on the other hand only talks democracy when convenient spin, and regularly attacks democraticly elected groups if they do not toe USA line. The USA also supports nopw, and did for the last many years all kinds of non-democratic governments, as long as they toe the line [Mubarak, the Saud fanily, Noriega, Dadam Hussein, etc].
Europe had enough of war, they lost too much. The USA has had only a couple of attacks on its soil, with marginal loss of life. The present war in Iraq/Afganistan hardly touches anyone [as % of population], and nearly none of the ruling elite. So war is a great game, can make lots of money, and that is the end of involvement for the rulig class.
Iran does not wish for war, for the last war is too close, and directly involved a large % of the population, with usually fatalities in most families.
Based on the baove analysis it is patently obvious that the danger is the USA with often unforseen consequences of its unitary actions: the whole middle east could go up in flames, with dire consequences for the whole world.
February 15, 2007 12:59 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on February 15, 2007 12:59
It is unthinkable that the rest of the world leaders don't know what's going on in the US. They do know, they do read history. THey can see who is influencing this President, and who controls the media and who is fomenting the war.Did not Olmert just travel to Washington to scream for the invasion of Iran? Are the rest of the world leaders being politically correct? Are they, too, bought out by the same people as the US congress? Is AIPAC worldwide?
What.
February 15, 2007 11:40 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on February 15, 2007 11:40
""Occupation" doesn't mean today what it did during the time of the Prophet... When the Prophet was alive, "occupation" meant that your officials were killed, your children sold into slavery, women raped and men driven from their homes and pressed into service or killed... No, "occupation" just isn't what it used to be." -- RDJRDJ, judging by what you write, THE PROPHET IS ALIVE AND WELL!
February 15, 2007 6:29 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on February 15, 2007 06:29
foreign military occupations
-----------
I'm all for ending the Palestinian occupation by a negotiated solution and for pressing hard for people in the area to make that the priority, despite those rejectionists who find peace the greatest threat to them, somehow. The PA has had elections and took EU money to support an effort to craft a Constitution - let them work with the Quartet to pressure Israel back to the negotiating table, instead of doing whatever it is they are now...
"Occupation" doesn't mean today what it did during the time of the Prophet.
When the Prophet was alive, "occupation" meant that your officials were killed, your children sold into slavery, women raped and men driven from their homes and pressed into service or killed.
Today, occupation means that you get your odious national debt whiped out at a Paris Club meeting, you get tens of billions of dollars in international aid and reconstruction, a fully-funded chance to re-establish officials responsible and accountable to periodic elections, enough regional autonomy to do international development deals, every human rights group checking up on every detail of every official action, and every diplomat in the world paying attention to your local political problems ...
No, "occupation" just isn't what it used to be.
February 15, 2007 5:55 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on February 15, 2007 05:55
I find most interesting the argument presented so clearly in the last two paragraphs. It seems to me that it should help explain to Americans why many non-Americans (not only Europeans) are so critical of them.
It is not that "people always picking on Americans" has become sport and entertainment, it is not a matter of "people being selective in their criticism, never seeing what is wrong with nations other than the US", it has nothing to do with most "people being purely and simply anti-American" (although some are -- yet "anti WHICH Americans?", one may ask). No, whether Americans like it or not, they must understand that the implications of their nation's foreign policy are such that they often affect adversely whole regions of the world, when it is not the world as a whole. Those policies become for many a matter of life and death. Hence the perceived threat, and the criticism. How could it be otherwise?
It's all very well to keep on trying to convince the world that Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, North Korea, etc., in turn, "represent a threat not only to the US but to the whole world"... as the Bush Administration has been attempting to do for years now... but that piece of propaganda does not seem to give the results expected by the Administration. Outside the US, most people hearing that will smile, laugh, but won't "buy"... It is extravagant (and considered threatening) to always claim that enemies of the US are necessarily everybody's enemies.
February 14, 2007 4:19 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on February 14, 2007 16:19