Super-patriotism can harden the heart

As an American in Europe, the only thing that irks me about anti-American 
feelings is the remembrance that students and intellectuals here were silent 
and demonstrations were nil while the Russians were brutalizing Afghanistan  
during their occupation years. The same lack of outrage was evident later 
while the Chechenian capital was reduced to rubble.

That said, I am still appalled by the suffering that is being inflicted on 
Afghan civilians as a result of U.S. bombing. The TV and press reports I am 
seeing are not anti-American propaganda; they are real, sincere and 
newsworthy. Americans who take offense at people who express their sympathy 
for the plight of a million refugees, many facing starvation, forget how 
their hearts were moved by the spectacle of Kosovans not long ago. Their 
blind patriotism can harden the heart (of course one expects this of Brit 
Hume and the right-wing Fox TV network).

LeRoy


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