In my lifetime I have noticed two very general sets of attitudes toward the U.S. I have lived abroad and travelled extensively, so I have a basis for comparison. We have either been grudgingly respected or dismissively ignored, with very few exceptions, during very short periods of time (after 9/11, etc.), There has been little middle ground. Our allies have been our allies and our enemies have been our enemies. Their actions have been contingent upon both of those sets of attitudes and which one was prevalent. Care to guess during which presidencies either have occurred?

I have a vivid recollection of the Carter years. I was active duty Navy at the time. It was post-Vietnam era and as a country we were walking around hanging our heads in shame for Vietnam and Watergate and it seemed patriotism was a dirty word. What did we have to be patriotic about? The media and Hollywood fed this national hangdog attitude with their drumbeat of “shame on you, shame on you”. Movies like Coming Home portrayed patriots as Neanderthals, insensitive, fringe lunatics and baby killers. Debauchery was also the rule. If you watch other movies from the 70’s it seemed everyone smoked dope. It was portrayed as an acceptable practice by regular moms, CEO’s, religious leaders and military people. Non-dope smokers were portrayed the same as patriots were. Whether society was a reflection of Hollywood or vice versa is irrelevant. It was what it was.

Our foreign policy seemed to consist of walking around the world bowing our heads and speaking softly to everyone, except we had no big stick. I remember a political cartoon during the Iranian hostage crisis that depicted President Carter, the IDF general who rescued hostages at Entebbe and the head of Scotland Yard who rescued the London hostages from that department store hostage crisis in London. Sorry, I could spend hours researching both their names, but what’s relevant was that in the cartoon, both the Israeli and the Brit had medals hanging from their chest with the names of their successful rescue operations. Carter was wearing a rose on his lapel. The caption said “yep, I grew it myself”. I was ashamed to read that cartoon.

Then came the Reagan years. The elites hated Reagan, both at home and in Europe. They portrayed him almost as badly as they did Bush 43. The portrayals ranged from him being a simple minded boob to a narcissistic arrogant cowboy. Sound familiar? Yep. The one thing they could not take away from Reagan however was his ability to communicate to the people. As a result, our national pride soared and suddenly we were getting the grudging respect from the rest of the world. They still didn’t like us but they damn sure respected us. I was still in the military and I saw the attitude of the military change dramatically as well. Patriotism seemed to come in style again and movies depicting dope smokers faded away. Again, whether society was a reflection of Hollywood or vice versa is irrelevant. It was what it was.

This patriotism carried us through the Clinton years during which we were repeatedly attacked by Islamo-fascists. From the first WTC bombing to the USS Cole we couldn’t seem to stop them. While this was going on, our Department of Justice became famous for raiding Americans homes and compounds (Waco, Ruby Ridge, Elian Gonalez family’s house). Meanwhile they were prohibited from sharing information with the CIA thanks to Jamie Gorelick. Information that may have prevented 9/11.

In came our second “clueless cowboy”, President Bush. This is when the world really amped up its hatred. They loved us briefly when we were victims after 9/11, but that ended the day we decided to fight back.

What? Fight? Are you insane?

This defeatist attitude began to spread back home too. Of course the media grabbed that torch and willingly ran with it. Comparisons to Vietnam invariably surfaced. Of course not the true Vietnam history where we were winning but the media’s attitude that it was a quagmire. This despite the fact that both wars could NOT have been more different. It was failure that the peaceniks wanted to emphasize. They wanted to go back to those hangdog glory days where the US was not the big badass sheepdog. Liberals love victims and it just won’t work if we win.

Of course they ignored the fact that attacks on our soil and sovereign assets stopped abruptly after April 2003. Sure they attacked Spain and Spain immediately surrendered and pulled their troops. They attacked EVERYONE BUT THE US.

Why the diatribe? Well I just read a fabulous piece in the New York Post of all places and it immediately took me back to those blasted Carter years.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/04082009/postopinion/opedcolumnists/os_amateur_hour_163368.htm?&page=1

Let’s hope we don’t see the same resulting effect. I for one am not optimistic. This administration’s going to get us killed. But that’s okay cause we’ll become victims again and maybe, just maybe, the world will love us. At least till 2012 when we decide to get our grudging respect back. Who gives a rats patootie if they like us. I like it when they shake their fists from the relative safety of their side of the fence. I’ve seen those guys in real life. Their bark is definitely worse than their bite. 

Hey how about this for a feather in Obama’s cap?

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2009/04/congressional-caucus-members-meet-with-the-castro-cousins-in-cuba.html

Now I’m sure, much like the LA Times, most would love to tout this as a foreign policy success, but before you start tooting that horn let me ask you. Why now? What is it about this administration that makes Castro so willing to work with it? Could it be that we are heading toward Cuba’s form of government at a breakneck pace? Ding, ding, ding! Give the man a cigar! Make it a Montecristo while you’re at it.

Listen, as a child of the Caribbean, I’m all for relations with Cuba. I would love nothing more than freedom and prosperity for all Cubans and for that island to leap forward into the 21^st century. Here’s the problem. While Castro’s oppressive communist regime remains in power, despite the leader’s failing health, that just ain’t gonna happen. Much like all Communist regimes, any kind of treaty or economic deal we begin with the Cubans is going to benefit the elite few. The poor downtrodden Cuban’s plight will remain the same. The fact that liberals don’t see this is yet another clear indication of their inability to think critically. 

 I was raised with expatriated Cubans in Puerto Rico. My uncle even married one. I guarantee you that the vast majority of expatriated Cubans have a deep seated mistrust and hatred for the Castro regime. They know the true deal. The Cuban community in Miami has been avidly working for regime change in Cuba for the past 50 years. Some have died valiantly pursuing the dream of Cuba becoming a free democratic society. Here’s another side of the story.

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/columnists/myriam-marquez/story/989534.html

But to people like Michael Moore, Sean Penn and the Black Congressional Caucus, Castro is just misunderstood and has been abused by our past administrations. Dr. Thomas Sowell put it best this week in his column of random thoughts.

“How a man who holds the entire population of a country as his prisoners, and punishes the families of those who escape, can be admired by people who call themselves liberals is one of the many wonders of the human mind's ability to rationalize. Yet such is the case with Fidel Castro.”