THE 'POLITICAL RAPE' OF AMERICA
I was listening to a fascinating BBC World Service interview with a British member of Parliament. As a practicing Catholic and a Liberal Democrat [which, in Britain, is like a social democrat with a civil libertarian streak], the woman spoke a bit about the relationship between religion and politics.

To her, the September 11, 2001 attacks were like "a political rape" of America. I've never been able to fully put into words to foreigners the full effects of 9/11 on the American psyche. I think her phrase, "political rape," is the best brief description I've heard of the psychological impact of the attacks.

There was shock and shame. For the first time, the American giant was at risk. Americans had always felt invulernable to the influence foreign powers, at least since the War of 1812. The feeling of vulnerability is something new to Americans. And we're reacting the only way we know how: militarily. We're not good at making friends. We're not good at diplomacy. We are good at war. Americans felt violated and now we're lashing out in anger. It doesn't matter who we hurt, as long as we hurt someone. It doesn't matter that Saddam had nothing to do with Osama (the guy that actually "raped" us). We took out a bad guy and it makes us feel good inside. In our minds, we took out another guy who might have potentially "raped" us in 1 or 5 or 100 years time.

This is why Europeans wonder why we're making such a big deal out of it. Countries like Britain and France and Spain have been living with terrorism for decades: they don't go around invading random countries.

In the early- and mid-90s, France was hit by a spate of terrorism inspired by Algerian Islamist extremists. When we proposed to invade Afghanistan, we invoked NATO's collective defense clause. Yet, when France was suffering frequent terrorist attacks, it never invoked that collective defense clause to suggest "regime change" in Algiers. France viewed it as crime, not as an international incident.

France viewed the mid-90s attacks as analagous to organized violent crime. The US viewed 9/11 as a "political rape." This goes some way to explaining the different ways each approached the problem (although France's 1954-62 war in Algeria, their equivalent to our Vietnam, surely lingered in memories).

Though it's worth noting that, despite these difference, supposed "axis of weasel" member France not only unequivocally supported our invasion of Afghanistan but sent troops over there. Maybe it's time we Americans stopped pissing on our friends. Or we soon might not have any left!