THE AMERICANS
1973 Broadcast transcript by Gordon Sinclair
Audio files of
original broadcast
Overview
Biography Gordon Sinclair
28 years later 2001 Reactions
to "The Americans" 9/14/01
Reactions to Leonard Pitt's column
AP Article 9/18/01
We'll go forward from
this moment by Leonard Pitts Jr, The Miami Herald 9/12/01
Shame On You
American-Hating Liberals Editorial
by Tony Parsons, London Daily Mirror supporting America 9/11/02
(new here Jan. 14, 2003) A word of background --
the London Daily Mirror is a notoriously left-wing daily that
normally does not support America. From the London Daily Mirror
and an English journalist, no matter what your views on President
Bush's statements about a potential upcoming war with Iraq, this is
very interesting. God bless America.
Osama bin Laden has
emerged as the prime suspect behind the World Trade Center, Pentagon and
Pittsburgh attacks. These excerpts are from a terrorism manual that U.S.
investigators say has been used by followers of terrorist leader Osama bin
Laden.
The manual,
"Military Studies in the Jihad Against the Tyrants," was seized in May
2000 in Manchester, England at the home of a bin Laden follower and
suspect still being sought in the conspiracy that led to the bombings of
the American Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998. An English
translation of the 180-page Arabic document was placed into evidence
during the recent embassy bombing trial in New York federal court. The
manual instructs Jihad members on an array of terrorist techniques:
TERRORIST
MANUAL - Part 2 of 2 How to Assassinate; Assassinations With Poisons, Spoiled Food and
Feces; Methods of Physical Torture; Methods of Psychological Torture
TERRORIST MANUAL
- Part 1 of 2
The Jihad; Organization; Forging Documents; Security; Weapons; Guidelines
for Beating and Killing Hostages
CAUTION: The
TERRORIST MANUAL contains despicable content
Transcript of the famous original broadcast
follows: The Americans
Transcript of Broadcast by Gordon Sinclair
Top
Broadcast June 5, 1973
And later read into the Congressional Record several times
The United States dollar took another
pounding on German, French and British exchanges this morning, hitting the
lowest point ever known in West Germany. It has declined there by 41%
since 1971 and this Canadian thinks it is time to speak up for the
Americans as the most generous and possibly the least-appreciated people
in all the earth.
As long as sixty years ago, when I first
started to read newspapers, I read of floods on the Yellow River and the
Yangtse. Who rushed in with men and money to help? The Americans did.
They have helped control floods on the
Nile, the Amazon, the Ganges and the Niger. Today, the rich bottom land of
the Mississippi is under water and no foreign land has sent a dollar to
help. Germany, Japan and, to a lesser extent, Britain and Italy, were
lifted out of the debris of war by the Americans who poured in billions of
dollars and forgave other billions in debts. None of those countries is
today paying even the interest on its remaining debts to the United
States.
When the franc was in danger of
collapsing in 1956, it was the Americans who propped it up and their
reward was to be insulted and swindled on the streets of Paris. I was
there. I saw it.
When distant cities are hit by
earthquakes, it is the United States that hurries into help... Managua
Nicaragua is one of the most recent examples. So far this spring, 59
American communities have been flattened by tornadoes. Nobody has helped.
The Marshall Plan .. the Truman Policy ..
all pumped billions upon billions of dollars into discouraged countries.
Now, newspapers in those countries are writing about the decadent
war-mongering Americans.
I'd like to see one of those countries
that is gloating over the erosion of the United States dollar build its
own airplanes.
Come on... let's hear it! Does any other
country in the world have a plane to equal the Boeing Jumbo Jet, the
Lockheed Tristar or the Douglas 107? If so, why don't they fly them? Why
do all international lines except Russia fly American planes? Why does no
other land on earth even consider putting a man or women on the moon?
You talk about Japanese technocracy and
you get radios. You talk about German technocracy and you get automobiles.
You talk about American technocracy and you find men on the moon, not
once, but several times ... and safely home again. You talk about scandals
and the Americans put theirs right in the store window for everyone to
look at. Even the draft dodgers are not pursued and hounded. They are here
on our streets, most of them ... unless they are breaking Canadian laws ..
are getting American dollars from Ma and Pa at home to spend here.
When the Americans get out of this bind
... as they will... who could blame them if they said 'the hell with the
rest of the world'. Let someone else buy the Israel bonds, Let someone
else build or repair foreign dams or design foreign buildings that won't
shake apart in earthquakes.
When the railways of France, Germany and
India were breaking down through age, it was the Americans who rebuilt
them. When the Pennsylvania Railroad and the New York Central went broke,
nobody loaned them an old caboose. Both are still broke. I can name to you
5,000 times when the Americans raced to the help of other people in
trouble.
Can you name me even one time when
someone else raced to the Americans in trouble? I don't think there was
outside help even during the San Francisco earthquake.
Our neighbours have faced it alone and I
am one Canadian who is damned tired of hearing them kicked around. They
will come out of this thing with their flag high. And when they do, they
are entitled to thumb their nose at the lands that are gloating over their
present troubles.
I hope Canada is not one of these. But
there are many smug, self-righteous Canadians. And finally, the American
Red Cross was told at its 48th Annual meeting in New Orleans this morning
that it was broke.
This year's disasters .. with the year
less than half-over has taken it all and nobody...but nobody... has
helped.
ORIGINAL SCRIPT AND AUDIO
COURTESY STANDARD BROADCASTING CORPORATION LTD.
(c) 1973 BY GORDON SINCLAIR
PUBLISHED BY STAR QUALITY MUSIC (SOCAN)
A DIVISION OF UNIDISC MUSIC INC.
578 HYMUS BOULEVARD
POINTE-CLAIRE, QUEBEC,
CANADA, H9R 4T2
On June 5, 1973, Gordon Sinclair sat up
in bed in Toronto and turned on his TV set. The United States had just
pulled out of the Vietnamese War which had ended in a stalemate - a war
fought daily on TV, over the radio and in the press. The aftermath of that
war resulted in a world-wide sell-off of American investments, prices
tumbled, the United States economy was in trouble. The war had also
divided the American people, and at home and abroad it seemed everyone was
lambasting the United States.
He turned on his radio, twisted the dial
and turned it off. He picked up the morning paper. In print, he saw in
headlines what he had found on TV and radio - the Americans were taking a
verbal beating from nations around the world. Disgusted with what he saw
and heard, he was outraged!
At 10:30, on his arrival at CFRB to
prepare his two pre-noon broadcasts, he strode into his office and
"dashed-off" two pages in 20 minutes for LET'S BE PERSONAL at 11:45 am,
and then turned to writing his 11:50 newscast that was to follow. At 12:01
pm, the script for LET'S BE PERSONAL was dropped on the desk of his
secretary who scanned the pages for a suitable heading and then wrote "Americans"
across the top and filed it away. The phones were already ringing.
Gordon Sinclair could not have written a
book that could have had a greater impact in the world than his two-page
script for The Americans. A book should have
been written on the events that followed. But, no one at CFRB, including
Sinclair himself, could have envisioned the reaction of the people of the
United States - from presidents - state governors - Congress - the Senate
- all media including TV, radio, newspapers, magazines - and from the
"ordinary" American on the street. Nor, could have the Canadian government
- stunned by the response to what has come to be regarded as one of
Canada's greatest public relations feats in the history of our relations
with the United States of America.
But, how did Sinclair's tribute to
Americans reach them? It had been swept across the United States at the
speed of a prairie fire by American radio stations - first, a station in
Buffalo called and asked to be fed a tape copy of the broadcast with
permission to use - both freely given. Nearby American stations obtained
copies from Buffalo or called direct. By the time it reached the
Washington, DC area, a station had superimposed Sinc's broadcast over an
instrumental version of BRIDGE OVER TROUBLED WATER, and was repeating it
at fixed times several times-a-day.
Congressmen and Senators heard it. It was
read several times into the Congressional Record. Assuming that it was on
a phono (33 1/3 rpm), Americans started a search for a copy. CFRB was
contacted. To satisfy the demand, CFRB started to make arrangements with
AVCO, an American record company, to manufacture and distribute it as a
"single".
As they were finalizing a contract that
would see all royalties, which would normally be due Gordon Sinclair be
paid (at his request) to the American Red Cross, word was received that an
unauthorized record, using Sinclair's script but read by another
broadcaster, was already flooding the US market. (Subsequently, on
learning that this broadcaster had agreed to turn over his royalties to
the Red Cross, no legal action was taken).
Sinclair's recording of his own work (to
which Avco had added a stirring rendition of THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE
REPUBLIC) did finally reach record stores, and sold hundreds of thousands
of copies, but the potential numbers were depressed by the sale of the
infringing record. Other record producers and performers (including Tex
Ritter) obtained legal permission to make their own versions. In Ritter's
case, because of the first-person style of the script, Tex preceded his
performance with a proper credit to Sinclair as the author. The American
Red Cross received millions of dollars in royalties, and Gordon Sinclair
was present at a special ceremony acknowledging his donation.
Advertisers using print media contacted
CFRB for permission to publish the text in a non-commercial manner;
industrial plants asked for the right to print the script in leaflet form
to handout to their employees.
Gordon Sinclair received invitations to
attend and be honoured at many functions in the United States which, by
number and due to family health problems at the time, he had to decline.
However, CFRB newscaster Charles Doering, was flown to Washington to give
a public reading of The Americans to the 28th
National Convention of the United States Air Force Association, held
September 18, 1974 at the Sheraton Park Hotel. His presentation was
performed with the on-stage backing of the U.S. Air Force Concert Band,
joined by the 100-voice Singing Sergeants in a special arrangement of The
Battle Hymn of the Republic.
8 years after the first broadcast of
The Americans, U.S. President Ronald Reagan
made his first official visit to Canada. At the welcoming ceremonies on
Parliament Hill, the new President praised "the Canadian journalist who
wrote that (tribute)" to the United States when it needed a friend. Prime
Minister Pierre Trudeau had Sinclair flown to Ottawa to be his guest at
the reception that evening.
Sinc had a long and pleasant conversation
with Mr. Reagan. The President told him that he had a copy of the record
of The Americans at his California ranch home
when he was governor of the state, and played it from time to time when
things looked gloomy.
On the evening of May 15th, 1984,
following a regular day's broadcasting, Gordon Sinclair suffered a heart
attack. He died on May 17th. As the word of his illness spread throughout
the United States, calls inquiring about his condition had been received
from as far away as Texas. The editorial in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune of
May 28th was typical of the reaction of the United States news media - A
GOOD FRIEND PASSES ON.
U.S. President Ronald Reagan: "I know I
speak for all Americans in saying the radio editorial Gordon wrote in 1973
praising the accomplishments of the United States was a wonderful
inspiration. It was not only critics abroad who forgot this nation's many
great achievements, but even critics here at home. Gordon Sinclair
reminded us to take pride in our nation's fundamental values."
Former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau:
"Gordon Sinclair's death ends one of the longest and most remarkable
careers in Canadian Journalism. His wit, irreverence, bluntness and
off-beat views have been part of the media landscape for so long that many
Canadians had come to believe he would always be there."
Following a private family service, two
thousand people from all walks of life filled Nathan Phillips Square in
front of Toronto's City Hall for a public service of remembrance organized
by Mayor Art Eggleton. Dignitaries joining him on the platform were
Ontario Lieutenant-Governor, John Black Aird; the Premier of Ontario,
William Davis; and Metro Chairman Paul Godfrey. Tens of thousands more
joined them through CFRB's live broadcast of the service which began
symbolically at 11:45 - the regular time of Sinc's daily broadcast of
LET'S BE PERSONAL.
As Ontario Premier William Davis said of
him "The name
GORDON SINCLAIR could become the classic definition of a full life."
The "biggest name" in Canadian broadcast
journalism is "Gordon Sinclair".
Top
It is a name respected (sometimes
reviled) by Canadians - a name revered by Americans in all fifty states
and around the world.
At 22 in 1922, Gordon Sinclair appeared
on the payroll of the Toronto Daily Star as a reporter. After four
uneventful years, he became Women's Editor from which position he was
rescued after writing a series of articles on hoboes. Duly impressed, his
bosses sent him around the world (four times, no less) as a wandering
reporter - a series of assignments in the late twenties and the thirties
that covered 360,000 miles, through all continents, to most of the world's
countries and on all oceans except the Antarctic.
Of these adventures, he wrote four books
FOOTLOOSE IN INDIA, CANNIBAL QUEST, LOOSE AMONG THE DEVILS and KHYBER
CARAVAN. In the early part of World War Two, "Sinc" incurred the
displeasure of Canada's senior generals and admirals, and was listed as
persona non grata as a war correspondent - a ban that was never lifted.
His career took a turn on August 19, 1942
that brought him into radio - the raid on Dieppe. The following day, he
was asked to come up with some hurried biographical sketches of leaders in
that raid - five of which were fed to a network. The result was a mid-day
personality series - LET'S BE PERSONAL - on Canada's leading radio
station, CFRB Toronto, which continued to the time of his death. The
following January, he was told by the Toronto Star that he must quit radio
or the paper. After 21 years as a newspaper man, he opted for radio and
became a free-lancer. His next venture, which lasted for 4 seasons, was a
traveling radio show - ONTARIO PANORAMA.
On D-Day, June 6, 1944, Sinclair joined
CFRB's News Department with a ten-minute newscast at 11:50 am, following
his LET'S BE PERSONAL. Three years later, he also took on the 5:50 pm
news, and subsequently preceded it with another 5-minute feature -
SHOWBUSINESS. Sinc's four daily features on CFRB pulled huge audiences and
drew listeners away from other stations in its coverage area during
periods when he was on the air.
Granted a leave from CFRB in 1948, Gordon
took a fifth trip around the world by way of Japan, China and Malaya, and
on to Europe. He saw the take-over of China by the communists and the
lifting of the Berlin road blockade by the Russians. He returned to CFRB
in '49 on a day-to-day basis, but it was not until 1960, after being with
the station for 16 years, than he signed his first contract.
In 1957, Gordon Sinclair became a charter
member of a weekly panel show on the CBC-TV Network - FRONT PAGE CHALLENGE
- which developed into Canada's longest-running television program, and
which was terminated in 1995.
Gordon Sinclair's greatest achievement
was his CFRB LET'S BE PERSONAL broadcast of June 5, 1973 - a broadcast
which echoed around the world and which history will record as one of the
most respected tributes from Canada to the people of the United States of
America.
The United States had just pulled out of
the Vietnam War which ended in a stalemate - a war fought daily on TV,
over radio and in the press. The war had divided the American people, and
at home and abroad it seemed everyone was lambasting the United States.
Outraged by what he saw and heard that morning, in his noon-hour broadcast
Sinclair rose to the defense of the American people- and his voice was
heard around the world - and as no Canadian had before - or since. For
weeks afterwards, his words were repeated over and over again from
thousands of radio stations - were read into the U. S. Congressional
Records several times and, at the insistence of the American people,
recorded for their keeping for posterity.
The phenomenon of Gordon Sinclair's "The
Americans" is recounted under "News" in the General Directory - Unique
Stories.
Gordon Sinclair received many honours and
awards from governors of several U.S. states, including being made an
honourary citizen of North Carolina. Apart from American awards, for his
exceptional role as a Canadian, in 1979, Gordon was appointed an Officer
of the Order of Canada. Previously, on his 70th birthday, June 3,1970, THE
GORDON SINCLAIR AWARD was inaugurated for "outspoken opinions and
integrity in broadcasting". In 1972, he was named to Canada's NEWS HALL OF
FAME. In 1974, he received the GORDON LOVE NEWS TROPHY. Also, in '74, he
was the recipient of the DISTINGUISHED SERVICE AWARD OF THE
RADIO/TELEVISION NEWS DIRECTORS ASSOCIATION "for Challenging and
Courageous Commentary". In 1984, posthumously, Gordon Sinclair was
inducted into THE CAB BROADCAST HALL OF FAME.
Other Gordon Sinclair books - BRIGHT
PATHS TO ADVENTURE (1950),SIGNPOST TO ADVENTURE (1952), WILL THE REAL
GORDON SINCLAIR PLEASE STAND UP? (1966) and WILL THE REAL GORDON SINCLAIR
PLEASE SIT DOWN? (1975).
An amusing "history" of CFRB, published
in the 70s,co-authored by Donald Jack and
Betty Kennedy, is titled SINC, BETTY AND THE MORNING MAN (aka Wally
Crouter -see Hall of Fame)
TORONTO (Reuter) - Words of praise for
the United States spoken nearly 30 years ago by a Canadian broadcaster
flew around the Internet on Thursday, fooling but providing comfort for
the many who thought it was penned in response to Tuesday's attacks by
hijacked airliners.
An electronic version of "The
Americans,'' which was originally broadcast by the late Canadian
journalist Gordon Sinclair, was e-mailed under the guise of a recent
editorial -- despite the fact Sinclair died in 1984 and wrote the script
in 1973, toward the end of the Vietnam War.
"Widespread but only partial news
coverage was given recently to a remarkable editorial broadcast... by
Gordon Sinclair,'' the e-mail said in its introduction to the script.
In the script, Sinclair praised the
United States, calling it "the most generous and possibly the least
appreciated people on all the earth.''
Many Americans applauded Sinclair on Web
sites that carried his message.
"My thanks to Gordon Sinclair for his
powerful and thought provoking words. For me, and I hope for you, his
words brings back a little of the pride we used to have in being an
American,'' one wrote on a U.S. Web site.
"What a refreshing article. Thank you...
Gordon Sinclair,'' another e-mail respondent said.
Sinclair said: "I can name you 5,000
times when the Americans raced to the help of other people in trouble. Can
you name me even one time when someone else raced to the Americans in
trouble? ... They will come out of this thing with their flag high. And
when they do, they are entitled to thumb their nose at the lands that are
gloating over their present troubles. I hope Canada is not one of those.''
Canadian broadcast journalist Betty
Kennedy, who was a friend of Sinclair's, told Reuter he wrote the radio
speech in response to reports that the American Red Cross was on the verge
of bankruptcy.
"He was so incensed by this,'' Kennedy
said. He wrote the speech in five minutes and immediately read it over the
radio.
"The response from it was absolutely
unbelievable,'' she recalled. "The thing absolutely snowballed.''
Kennedy said she believed the transcript
resurfaced, which won wide play in the United States at the time, because
it spoke well of the American people.
"It was so warm-hearted... At a time of
terrible trouble...they (Americans) probably need to remember that.''
They pay me to provide words that help make sense of that which
troubles the American soul. But in this moment of airless shock when hot
tears sting disbelieving eyes, the only thing I can find to say, the only
words that seem to fit, must be addressed to the unknown author of this
suffering.
You monster. You beast. You unspeakable bastard.
What lesson did you hope to teach us by your coward's attack on our
World Trade Center, our Pentagon, us? What was it you hoped we would
learn? Whatever it was, please know that you failed.
Did you want us to respect your cause? You just damned your cause.
Did you want to make us fear? You just steeled our resolve.
Did you want to tear us apart? You just brought us together.
Let me tell you about my people. We are a vast and quarrelsome family,
a family rent by racial, social, political and class division, but a
family nonetheless. We're frivolous, yes, capable of expending tremendous
emotional energy on pop cultural minutiae -- a singer's revealing dress, a
ball team's misfortune, a cartoon mouse. We're wealthy, too, spoiled by
the ready availability of trinkets and material goods, and maybe because
of that, we walk through life with a certain sense of blithe entitlement.
We are fundamentally decent, though -- peace-loving and compassionate. We
struggle to know the right thing and to do it. And we are, the
overwhelming majority of us, people of faith, believers in a just and
loving God.
Some people -- you, perhaps -- think that any or all of this makes us
weak. You're mistaken. We are not weak. Indeed, we are strong in ways that
cannot be measured by arsenals.
IN PAIN
Yes, we're in pain now. We are in mourning
and we are in shock. We're still grappling with the unreality of the awful
thing you did, still working to make ourselves understand that this isn't
a special effect from some Hollywood blockbuster, isn't the plot
development from a Tom Clancy novel. Both in terms of the awful scope of
their ambition and the probable final death toll, your attacks are likely
to go down as the worst acts of terrorism in the history of the United
States and, probably, the history of the world. You've bloodied us as we
have never been bloodied before.
But there's a gulf of difference between making us bloody and making us
fall. This is the lesson Japan was taught to its bitter sorrow the last
time anyone hit us this hard, the last time anyone brought us such abrupt
and monumental pain. When roused, we are righteous in our outrage,
terrible in our force. When provoked by this level of barbarism, we will
bear any suffering, pay any cost, go to any length, in the pursuit of
justice.
I tell you this without fear of contradiction. I know my people, as
you, I think, do not. What I know reassures me. It also causes me to
tremble with dread of the future.
In the days to come, there will be recrimination and accusation,
fingers pointing to determine whose failure allowed this to happen and
what can be done to prevent it from happening again. There will be
heightened security, misguided talk of revoking basic freedoms. We'll go
forward from this moment sobered, chastened, sad. But determined, too.
Unimaginably determined.
THE STEEL IN US
You see, the steel in us is not always
readily apparent. That aspect of our character is seldom understood by
people who don't know us well. On this day, the family's bickering is put
on hold.
As Americans we will weep, as Americans we will mourn, and as
Americans, we will rise in defense of all that we cherish.
So I ask again: What was it you hoped to teach us? It occurs to me that
maybe you just wanted us to know the depths of your hatred. If that's the
case, consider the message received. And take this message in exchange:
You don't know my people. You don't know what we're capable of. You don't
know what you just started.
Posted at 2:17 p.m. EDT
Tuesday, September 18, 2001
Columnist's words on attack spread, draw thousands of
e-mails
By ALEX VEIGA Associated Press Writer
MIAMI -- (AP) -- Leonard Pitts
Jr. saw the images of death and destruction from New York and Washington
unfold on television and struggled through shock and sadness to do his
job: find something to say.
The Miami Herald columnist and author went
with his gut feeling -- anger -- and wrote nearly 700 words directed at
the then-faceless terrorists. He assured those responsible that Americans
would not break, they would rally.
Pitts' words have rallied thousands across the globe. Like a chain
letter, his column has been passed along countless times over the
Internet. Readers have flooded his voice mail, and sent him 21,000 e-mails
since Wednesday morning.
"I used to think I knew what it was like to get a strong response,''
Pitts said Monday from his home in Bowie, Md. "I've never even imagined
anything like this.''
Pitts, 43, was driving his daughter to school last Tuesday when he
heard that a passenger jet had crashed into one of the World Trade Center
towers in New York.
Minutes later, as he pulled into his driveway, he heard about the
second plane barreling into the other 110-floor tower, and a cold dread
that the crashes were deliberate began to sink in.
"It seemed and it still seems like something out of Tom Clancy's
books,'' he said.
He ran to his upstairs home office and watched the news with a computer
on his lap, knowing that the column he had intended to write on Andrea
Yates, the Houston woman accused of drowning her five children, would have
to wait.
"I had to sit there for a while and figure out what I was feeling,''
Pitts said. His gut response was "anger at the callousness and the
audacity of these people.''
"After I decided that, most of it came out very quickly,'' he said.
The headline on Pitts' column was "
We'll
go forward from this moment". In
it Pitts asks a nameless terrorist what lessons he hoped to teach
Americans with the suicide hijackings.
"Did you want us to respect your cause? You just damned your cause. Did
you want to make us fear? You just steeled our resolve. Did you want to
tear us apart? You just brought us together,'' he wrote.
Pitts tells the terrorist that Americans are a "vast and quarrelsome
family'' divided by social differences, often preoccupied with materialism
and pop culture, but a fundamentally decent, peace-loving and
compassionate people of faith.
"You don't know my people,'' he wrote. "You don't know what we're
capable of. You don't know what you just started. But you're about to
learn.''
The responses to Pitts' syndicated column, which regularly appears in
more than 100 newspapers worldwide, have been mostly favorable, he said.
"I think it just struck people,'' he said. "(It was) the words that
they needed to hear at the time they needed to hear them.''
Pitts, who began his 25-year journalism career as a music critic, said
he read about one thousand of the missives, including a handful of
unfavorable ones.
One reader called his column "naive and jingoistic.'' Some readers were
concerned about the looming retaliation by the U.S. military in Asia.
Another argued Americans should try to understand why the terrorists and
their supporters in the Middle East hate the United States.
Pitts said he has mixed feelings over the attention his column has
garnered.
"I would rather not have touched everybody if this was the cost,'' he
said. "I wish I hadn't had to write it.''
A word of background -- the London Daily Mirror is a notoriously
left-wing daily that normally does not support America. From the
London Daily Mirror and an
English journalist, no matter what your views on President Bush's
statements about a potential upcoming war with Iraq, this is very
interesting. God bless America.
-------------------
Shame On You American-Hating Liberals
by Tony Parsons
London Daily Mirror
September 11, 2002
ONE year ago, the world witnessed a
unique kind of broadcasting -- the mass murder of thousands, live on
television. As a lesson in the pitiless cruelty of the human race,
September 11 was up there with Pol Pot's mountain of skulls in
Cambodia, or the skeletal bodies stacked like garbage in the Nazi
concentration camps. An unspeakable act so cruel, so calculated and so
utterly merciless that surely the world could agree on one thing -
nobody deserves this fate. Surely there could be consensus: the
victims were truly innocent, the perpetrators truly evil.
But to the world's eternal shame, 9/11
is increasingly seen as America's comeuppance. Incredibly,
anti-Americanism has increased over the last year. There has always
been a simmering resentment to the USA in this country - too loud, too
rich, too full of themselves and so much happier than Europeans - but
it has become an epidemic. And it seems incredible to me. More than
that, it turns my stomach.
America is this country's greatest
friend and our staunchest ally. We are bonded to the US by culture,
language and blood. A little over half a century ago, around half a
million Americans died for our freedoms, as well as their own. Have we
forgotten so soon? And exactly a year ago, thousands of ordinary men,
women and children - not just Americans, but from dozens of countries
- were butchered by a small group of religious fanatics. Are we so
quick to betray them?
What touched the heart about those who
died in the twin towers and on the planes was that we recognised them.
Young fathers and mothers, somebody's son and somebody's daughter,
husbands and wives, and children, some unborn.
And these people brought it on
themselves? And their nation is to blame for their meticulously
planned slaughter?
These days you don't have to be some
dust-encrusted nut job in Kabul or Karachi or Finsbury Park to see
America as the Great Satan. The anti- American alliance is made up of
self-loathing liberals who blame the Americans for every ill in the
Third World, and conservatives suffering from power-envy, bitter that
the world's only superpower can do what it likes without having to ask
permission.
The truth is that America has behaved
with enormous restraint since September 11.
Remember, remember.
Remember the gut-wrenching tapes of
weeping men phoning their wives to say, "I love you," before they were
burned alive.
Remember those people leaping to their
deaths from the top of burning skyscrapers.
Remember the hundreds of firemen buried
alive.
Remember the smiling face of that
beautiful little girl who was on one of the planes with her mum.
Remember, remember - and realise that
America has never retaliated for 9/11 in anything like the way it
could have.
So a few al-Qaeda tourists got locked
without a trial in Camp X-ray? Pass the Kleenex.
So some Afghan wedding receptions were
shot up after they merrily fired their semi-automatics in a sky full
of American planes? A shame, but maybe next time they should stick to
confetti.
AMERICA could have turned a large chunk
of the world into a parking lot. That it didn't is a sign of strength.
American voices are already being raised against attacking Iraq -
that's what a democracy is for. How many in the Islamic world will
have a minute's silence for the slaughtered innocents of 9/11? How
many Islamic leaders will have the guts to say that the mass murder of
9/11 was an abomination?
When the news of 9/11 broke on the West
Bank, those freedom-loving Palestinians were dancing in the street.
America watched all of that - and didn't push the button. We should
thank the stars that America is the most powerful nation in the world.
I still find it incredible that 9/11 did not provoke all-out war. Not
a "war on terrorism." A real war.
The fundamentalist dudes are talking
about "opening the gates of hell," if America attacks Iraq. Well,
America could have opened the gates of hell like you wouldn't believe.
The US is the most militarily powerful
nation that ever strode the face of the earth. The campaign in
Afghanistan may have been less than perfect and the planned war on
Iraq may be misconceived.
But don't blame America for not
bringing peace and light to these wretched countries. How many
democracies are there in the Middle East, or in the Muslim world? You
can count them on the fingers of one hand - assuming you haven't had
any chopped off for minor shoplifting.
I love America, yet America is hated. I
guess that makes me Bush's poodle. But I would rather be a dog in New
York City than a Prince in Riyadh. Above all, America is hated because
it is what every country wants to be - rich, free, strong, open,
optimistic. Not ground down by the past, or religion, or some caste
system. America is the best friend this country ever had and we should
start remembering that.
Or do you really think the USA is the
root of all evil? Tell it to the loved ones of the men and women who
leaped to their death from the burning towers. Tell it to the nursing
mothers whose husbands died on one of the hijacked planes, or were
ripped apart in a collapsing skyscraper. And tell it to the hundreds
of young widows whose husbands worked for the New York Fire
Department.
To our shame, George Bush gets a worse
press than Saddam Hussein. Once we were told that Saddam gassed the
Kurds, tortured his own people and set up rape-camps in Kuwait. Now we
are told he likes Quality Street. Save me the orange centre, oh mighty
one!
Remember, remember, September 11.
One of the greatest atrocities in human
history was committed against America.
