We spend a lot of time and blood and money dealing with the legacies of colonialism without seeming to recognize the ways we perpetuate that cycle.

Important to remember that this didn't begin with the Europeans, and that we're dealing still with legacies of the Ottomans and for that matter, at some distance, Alexander the Great.

One of the more bizarre criticisms of Obama I've seen is his alleged "anti-colonialist" mindset; strange for all kinds of reasons, starting with improbability, but also that it's said like it's a bad thing.

I've seen this attributed to Russell Kirk, but need a citation from the original source: "There is no surer way to make a man your enemy than to tell him you are going to remake him in your image for his own good."

Comments

[justcorbly]

When I was in Jordan, just about every time I took a cab the driver was sure to point to the essentially barren hills of the city and tell me how they used to be covered with beautiful trees, "like Lebanon," until "the Turks" (Ottomans) cut them down and took them away.

Memories of "the Turks" colors Jordan's ties with Turkey and popular perceptions of the Israeil-Turkish relationship.

[Jim Buie]

When I was in Vietnam recently, their official histories portrayed America as simply the successor to French colonialists. Certainly an over-simplification of our involvement there, but their sense of being invaded and occupied for 150 years certainly contributed to nationalist fervor. It seemed to matter less what our ideals and objectives were. The fact that we were foreigners intent on remaking the Vietnamese in our image made us the enemy. It's ironic that today "communist" Vietnam has embraced free market reforms, is embracing a consumer economy, considers the US its best trading partner, and looks to our military (especially our Navy) to help fend off the Chinese.

[Grant]

"The most of those People that Sit in Darkness have been furnished with more light than was good for them or profitable for us. We have been injudicious."

- some smart-ass precusor to Obummer the Apologizer.

[tk solomon]

calling Obama anti-imperialist is bizarre. he has continued the previous american imperialist policies regardless of any contempt that he is accused of having for old regimes. he's one of the boys with half a white man's burden. he may be the favorite domestic democrat but he was vetted by the same gang that gave us the bushes, the clintons and reagan.

[prell]

I'm guessing that anti-colonialism runs counter to the Tea Party's brand of "American Exceptionalism." Because Obama's Kenyan father was a vocal anti-imperialist (Is that really shocking to some people?) that must mean Obama hates America, freedom, and spits upon the graves of Christopher Newport and John Winthrop. You know, were it not for the original colonists - all of whom were chosen by God - who braved the uncharted waters of the Great Atlantic and set foot upon vacant soil, only to be attacked by dark-skinned agents of Lucifer - everyone would've died in the Tower and there would be no Pledge of Allegiance.

I believe it was Newton Leroy Gingrich who advanced the Obama is an anti-imperialist thesis. We all know Gingrich is a big fan of colonization. He wanted to colonize the moon.

[Ed Cone]

"He had no more of a notion than any of you what the whole affair's about, and you gave him money and York Harding's books on the East and said, 'Go ahead. Win the East for Democracy.' He never saw anything he hadn't heard in a lecture-hall, and his writers and his lectures made a fool of him."

Previous citation.

[Hugh]

(Vietnam) "and looks to our military (especially our Navy) to help fend off the Chinese"

Good luck with that.