Drift Reality > Washington, DC > February 2004

Spain, Iran, and Tucson

It is already half way through March and I'm only just distributing the monthly update from February.

This is mostly due to the fact that I spent the latter half of February in Tucson, Arizona, visiting a good friend.

Tucson is very similar to San Diego in a lot of ways: the weather is great, the people are fairly attractive, and most people you meet are politically and culturally apathetic.

In case the first two observations outweigh the third by a mile, and you are thinking to yourself, "Who cares about politics and culture when you can sit by the pool in mid-March and drink a corona (wow - those corona ads are really starting to get into my head)," then I have the following to say to you:

"I couldn't agree more."

Then again, I'm jaded because the weather in DC sucks.

That being said, I'll move on. During the two weeks I was in Arizona, I didn't get much of a chance to make progress on the documentary I've been working on, which I still haven't been able to figure out a name for yet. I'm still aiming to have it completed by sometime in June, at which point I'll look into screening it locally, if it isn't a complete piece of crap.

Since coming back, I've completed a piece on Mazandaran, which you can view by clicking here.

Up next, will be the introductory sequence, which combines footage of the general landscape of the Iran streets cut with the landscape of the DC streets. This piece should be completed by next Monday.

About three days after I got back from Arizona, disaster struck in Madrid. Only a week later, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, was elected prime minister and promptly declared he was pulling all Spanish troops out of Iraq, amidst US criticism that Spain was caving to Al Queda and setting a dangerous precedent by allowing terrorism to affect foreign policy.

I look at it a little bit differently. Before Spain committed any troops to the war in Iraq, polls showed that close to 90% of the majority population were staunchly opposed to the war. Despite the popular objection to the war, the government of Jose Maria Aznar decided that their national interests were best served by backing US policy in Iraq.

In some ways then, I think that Spain's decision to pull out of Iraq is more an act of succumbing to the whim of their own people than Al Queda. The timing of the decision may have been more diplomatic (say, more than a week after a terrorist attack), but in general, I don't see anything wrong with a newly elected socialist president saying he is going to follow popular opinion.

I do agree that this decision may have the deleterious effect of prodding Al Queda on to more acts of violence, but I would also like to point out the link between military activity and terrorism.

Simply stated, evidence has shown that the more prominent a role that an overseas military plays in a particular country, the more acts of terrorism that are likely to occur. There is a term "Blowback," that refers to a CIA neologism for the repercussions of U.S. foreign policy.

According to the Chalmers Johnson, the author of the aptly titled book "Blowback," "The innocent of the twenty-first century are going to harvest unexpected blowback disasters from the imperialist escapades of recent decades. Although most Americans may be largely ignorant of what was, and still is, being done in their names, all are likely to pay a steep price - individually and collectively - for their nation's continued efforts to dominate the global scene."

Although the book reads a little too left-sided for me, I think I'd tend to trust his views on U.S foreign policy (he served overseas in the military and is the president of the Japan Policy Research Institute at UC San Diego) more than someone like Rush Limbaugh, whose international cultural experience probably involves driving a Honda and eating at Taco Bell.

Anyway, the bottom life is (and I'm probably going to alienate a lot of people by saying this), is that US foreign policy hasn't always been the most internationally friendly approach since, say, World War II and the international community has been paying attention, particularly as of late.

Don't believe me?

Well, a recent nine-country opinion poll conducted by the Pew Research Center, found "slipping support for the U.S. war on terrorism in Europe and negative views of the United States in all foreign countries polled except Britain. Big majorities said that the United States does not consider other countries' interests."

Furthermore, only 14 percent of Germans, 15 percent of the French, 28 percent of Russians and 7 percent of Pakistanis viewed Bush favorably, compared to 1991, when 75 percent of Germans and 72 percent of Russians had a favorable view of President George H.W. Bush.

According to the poll director Andrew Kohut, "We've never seen ratings as low as this for America."

I love this country and think that we have been one of the most consistently successful nations economically and politically, in the 20th and 21st century. But as someone who really loves to travel around the world, I find it disturbing that resentment towards the US is growing at such an unprecedented rate and so many people seem unaware.

For me, the bottom line is that the majority of the US public, needs to stop watching MTV Cribs, American Idol, and movies like Armageddon, and open their eyes to the possibility that the world extends beyond our own borders and things are not allright.

It also helps to look at my Web site every day.