European Communities

GREECE is said to be the most anti-American country in Europe, and Albania the most pro-American. As it happened, my itinerary included both countries. I was to speak on 9/11 and the ongoing war, and to mix it up a little with local journalists and intellectuals. Anything learned? Many things, among them that there is really no such thing as a European: The continent is not a monolith, no matter what the grandees in Brussels might wish. Also, that anti-Americanism is something of a house of cards, ready to collapse with a breath of reason and explication. Of course, you can do nothing about the die-hards. But what can you do about die-hards anywhere, including on an American campus?

The first thing an American is told in Greece is, “Don’t say anything about terrorism”—meaning, domestic terrorism, with which Greece has had a problem. The Greeks are very sensitive to criticism on this score, particularly coming from Americans. Recently, government authorities rounded up the terrorists of the November 17 group, which has wreaked havoc for the last 25 years. In the course of their work, they murdered five Americans, and the Greek political establishment did not seem especially sorrowful or alarmed. In light of the current American-led war, and the coming of the Olympic Games to Athens in 2004, the Greeks were feeling extra pressure to do something about terrorists in their midst. Good for them. I was certainly not going to mention it, even to laud it.

About the Author

Jay Nordlinger

Jay Nordlinger was a senior editor of National Review and a book fellow at National Review Institute.

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GREECE is said to be the most anti-American country in Europe, and Albania the most pro-American. As it happened, my itinerary included both countries. I was to speak on 9/11 and the ongoing war, and to mix it up a little with local journalists and intellectuals. Anything learned? Many things, among them that there is really no such thing as a European: The continent is not a monolith, no matter what the grandees in Brussels might wish. Also, that anti-Americanism is something of a house of cards, ready to collapse with a breath of reason and explication. Of course, you can do nothing about the die-hards. But what can you do about die-hards anywhere, including on an American campus?

The first thing an American is told in Greece is, “Don’t say anything about terrorism”—meaning, domestic terrorism, with which Greece has had a problem. The Greeks are very sensitive to criticism on this score, particularly coming from Americans. Recently, government authorities rounded up the terrorists of the November 17 group, which has wreaked havoc for the last 25 years. In the course of their work, they murdered five Americans, and the Greek political establishment did not seem especially sorrowful or alarmed. In light of the current American-led war, and the coming of the Olympic Games to Athens in 2004, the Greeks were feeling extra pressure to do something about terrorists in their midst. Good for them. I was certainly not going to mention it, even to laud it.