Rag Land

I am engaged to a Brit. There...I said it. Now, what most of these United States and the people living within do not, and verily cannot know, is that cross cultural differences ABOUND! Furthermore, these differences are never as great as in the realm of...wait for it...POLITICS!!!

Oh no...there he goes. I know that everyone and their mother has posted his/her/its thoughts about the election and given great insight into what everyone else should think (so many brilliant people on the net...I swear...), but I figured I would take a minute and try to give a brief thought (I say brief because I'll probably get bored writing it if it's too long and make a sandwich...speaking of which...) as to why the rest of the world, most especially Britain, would rather eat their own food (boiled everything people!) than have anything to do with the man, the myth, the de-taxenator...George W. Bush! I have talked to a number of people about this because of my experience over there and I thought you'd be dying to know really what I thought. So here it is.

It is actually not too difficult to figure out why America rubs so much of the world the wrong way. Let me explain in an analogy. Let's say you are at home with your brothers and sisters. Now your oldest brother (the biggest, strongest, and, funnily enough, one with the biggest GDP) is in charge while mom is away...where is she, you ask...I don't know...let's say...jail. So brother is in charge and needs to get you all to do the dishes, not a fun task, but one that needs to be done. Are you more likely to respond favorably if told, "Although I am the oldest, I value your opinions equally. The dishes need to be done, but I am willing to be merely a leader among equals and we can discuss the best and most favorable way, across the board, to do the dishes and maybe even make cookies." or "I'm doing the dishes with or without you...however, if you don't help...I'm telling mom you killed the dog...oh and you're evil...an axis of evil!"?

I'm not necessarily saying that what we have done is wrong. Saddam was a horrible leader (almost as bad a the Saudi leaders...oops, I digress...) and shouldn't be in power, but our alienating strongarm unilateral tactics have put us in a position where we may win the battle in Iraq, but lose the war in being a respected leader among the world.

In closing, I have heard on countless shows how people say we have to do the right thing regardless and they don't care what the other countries think. If, however, we want to be the "moral" leaders of the world, shouldn't we be the type of country that people WANT to follow?

Just a thought...