By
Steve Otto
The longest war in US history
is finally over. And while many of us on the left are cheering that the US is
finally ending the occupation of Afghanistan, there are polls that show the US
imperialism still has a lot of support.
Many Americans still see the
US as a “protector of civilization” for third world countries. It is not that
different from such attitudes as “The White Man’s burden” a poem by Rudyard Kipling.[1] His work was an apologist
for the imperialistic and arrogance of western governments and the policies of
colonialism, common in the 19th century. From ABC
News:
“Americans are upset about how the withdrawal of U.S. troops
has unfolded, and they are eager to see the U.S. help clean up the mess. But
Americans are also fickle — even self-contradictory — when it comes to foreign
policy.
First, only 25 percent of registered
voters believed the Afghanistan withdrawal was going very or somewhat well, and
57 percent thought it was going not too well or not well at all, according to a Morning Consult/Politico poll
conducted Aug. 13-16, as Kabul was falling to the Taliban. And Americans
largely blame President Biden for this: A subsequent Morning Consult poll,
conducted Aug. 16-19, found that 43 percent of registered voters thought Biden
held a great deal of responsibility for the situation — more than Congress or
any of Biden’s three predecessors, who all clocked in at 24 to 27 percent.”
And according
to a Ipsos/Reuters poll, Bidens three predecessors did
better :
“George W. Bush (47 percent good, 39 percent bad),
Barack Obama (51 percent good, 38 percent bad) and Donald Trump (51 percent
good, 36 percent bad) — all got better, though not stellar, grades.
Notably, of
course, this still means more Americans support withdrawal than oppose it, by
12- to 17-point margins.”
What is
really bad is to see Bush and Trump with higher scores. These two are probably
among the worst leaders this country ever allowed to run as the president. The
right-wing ass hole Trump got 51 percent. That’s ridiculous. We on the left
have a lot of work left to do with poll numbers like that.
On the
brighter side, most Americans wanted the US to leave Afghanistan:
“Notably…. more Americans support withdrawal than
oppose it, by 12- to 17-point margins.”
[1] As Victorian
imperial poetry, "The White Man's Burden" thematically
corresponded to Kipling's belief that the British Empire was the Englishman's "Divine Burden to reign God's Empire on Earth" and celebrates British colonialism as a mission of
civilization that eventually would benefit the colonized natives.
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