History Is Written By Those Who Win

... The Connection Between Imperial Politics And Culture Is Astonishingly Direct. American Attitudes To American "greatness", To Hierarchies Of Race, To The Perils Of "other" Revolutions (the American Revolution Being Considered Unique And Somehow Unrepeatable Anywhere Else In The World) Have Remained Constant, Have Dictated, Have Obscured, The Realities Of Empire, While Apologists For Overseas American Interests Have Insisted On American Innocence, Doing Good, Fighting For Freedom.

It Is Very Easy To Make Wild Generalizations About Islam. All You Have To Do Is Read Almost Any Issue Of The New Republic And You'll See There The Radical Evil That's Associated With Islam, The Arabs As Having A Depraved Culture, And So Forth. These Are Impossible Generalizations To Make In The United States About Any Other Religious Or Ethnic Group.

Uninformed And Yet Open To Appeals For Justice As They Are, Americans Are Capable Of Reacting As They Did To The Anc Campaign Against Apartheid, Which Finally Changed The Balance Of Forces Inside South Africa.

Power, After All, Is Not Just Military Strength. It Is The Social Power That Comes From Democracy, The Cultural Power That Comes From Freedom Of Expression And Research, The Personal Power That Entitles Every Arab Citizen To Feel That He Or She Is In Fact A Citizen, And Not Just A Sheep In Some Great Shepherd's Flock.

And In This Relentlessly Unfolding Series Of Interactions, The U.s. Has Played A Very Distinctive Role, Which Most Americans Have Been Either Shielded From Or Simply Unaware Of.