From Salon
By Glenn Greenwald

Tom Friedman is befuddled. He cannot understand “the decline in American popularity around the world under President Bush” and is specifically upset about the fact that “China is now more popular in Asia than America and how few Europeans say they identify with the United States.” Friedman generously allows that “[a]n America that presides over Abu Ghraib, torture and Guantánamo Bay deserves a thumbs-down” — a “thumbs-down”: what a playful movie critic says about a boring film. In listing America’s small imperfections that have caused this worldwide unpopularity, Friedman forgot to mention America’s invasion and occupation of Iraq, which Friedman himself cheered on.

Despite that list of America’s “mistakes” (”Abu Ghraib, torture and Guantánamo Bay”), Friedman nonetheless pronounces that worldwide disapproval of America is “self-indulgent, knee-jerk and borderline silly.” Why? Because Zimbabwe is worse (its dictator stole the last election and represses the country’s citizens), as is China and Russia (they vetoed U.N. sanctions against Zimbabwe this week). Friedman thus lectures the world as follows:

Perfect we are not, but America still has some moral backbone. There are travesties we will not tolerate. . . . So, yes, we’re not so popular in Europe and Asia anymore. I guess they would prefer a world in which America was weaker, where leaders with the values of Vladimir Putin and Thabo Mbeki had a greater say, and where the desperate voices for change in Zimbabwe would, well, just shut up.

Friedman pronounces Russia and China’s opposition to anti-Mugabe sanctions as “truly filthy,” and says that “when it comes to pure, rancid moral corruption, no one can top South Africa’s president, Thabo Mbeki.”

There’s no question that Robert Mugabe is a brutal and murderous tyrant, a true menace to those within his limited reach. And there are ample grounds for disputing Russia and China’s claim that international sanctions — by derailing South-African-led negotiations with conflicting Zimbabwean factions — would inflame rather than improve Mugabe’s repression (though the track record of U.N. sanctions in relieving repression and suffering isn’t exactly inspiring).

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