No Victims, Thanks

Anti-Americanism is galvanizing much of the world. Americans as victims of al-Qaeda evoked sympathy, but Americans fighting back in self-defense are written off as aggressors and unilateralists, to be condemned for disturbing the peace. Some of this animus is long-term, dating back to the Cold War, and deriving from European elites who admired the Soviet Union. And some of it is short-term, a projection of the electoral or personal ambitions of the intellectual and moral pygmies who pass for statesmen in today’s Europe, the Chiracs and the Schroeders.

The preeminent international institutions of anti-Americanism are the United Nations and the European Union. Mired deep in corruption and hypocrisy, both of these are doing their utmost to extend their powers, in the latter case engaging in empire-building by all available means. Supporting them both down the years, the United States has effectively laid the rod upon its own back. Where this will finish nobody can yet say, but the omens are poor. What was once “the West” has evidently fractured into divergent and perhaps incompatible parts.

About the Author

David Pryce-Jones

David Pryce-Jones (1936–2025) was a British author and commentator and served as a senior editor of National Review.

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Anti-Americanism is galvanizing much of the world. Americans as victims of al-Qaeda evoked sympathy, but Americans fighting back in self-defense are written off as aggressors and unilateralists, to be condemned for disturbing the peace. Some of this animus is long-term, dating back to the Cold War, and deriving from European elites who admired the Soviet Union. And some of it is short-term, a projection of the electoral or personal ambitions of the intellectual and moral pygmies who pass for statesmen in today’s Europe, the Chiracs and the Schroeders.

The preeminent international institutions of anti-Americanism are the United Nations and the European Union. Mired deep in corruption and hypocrisy, both of these are doing their utmost to extend their powers, in the latter case engaging in empire-building by all available means. Supporting them both down the years, the United States has effectively laid the rod upon its own back. Where this will finish nobody can yet say, but the omens are poor. What was once “the West” has evidently fractured into divergent and perhaps incompatible parts.