Op-Ed Columnist – Paging Uncle Sam – NYTimes.com
This is a Thomas Friedman (“Hot Flat and Crowded”) piece. He is writing it from Asia. There are many, many Americans who often feel embarrassed by their country and fellow countrymen. One reason is because we are so self-obsessed that we hardly acknowledge there are other countries outside of our boarders.
In that light, we must not forget that the entire world is in economic meltdown right now. And it appears, if Friedman is right, the rest of the world is looking for us to pull everyone out of this mess (even though we were the ones who put the whole world here in the first place)>
“No other country can substitute for the U.S.,” a senior Korean official remarked to me. “The U.S. is still No. 1 in military, No. 1 in economy, No. 1 in promoting human rights and No. 1 in idealism. Only the U.S. can lead the world. No other country can. China can’t. The E.U. is too divided, and Europe is militarily far behind the U.S. So it is only the United States … We have never had a more unipolar world than we have today.”
Americans, as a people, should realize how many hopes and expectations other people are putting on their shoulders.”
