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Government Is Not “Us”
“America is not what’s wrong with the world. I read all this stuff — people hate us, people don’t like us. The fact of the matter is, people line up to come into this country every year because it’s better here than other places, and because they respect the fact that we respect human beings.”

So says Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

It could be that those who line up are making a distinction that Rumsfeld seems unable to make, namely, the distinction between the American people and the U.S. government. There’s a world of difference between them. Poll after poll in the Middle East indicates that the public there understands that difference. While Arabs generally express good feelings toward Americans and their society (or did until the Abu Ghraib revelations), they express disdain for U.S. government policy toward their region. This shows a discrimination that our so-called leaders need to learn.

When Rumsfeld talks about “us,” he blurs a crucial distinction, most likely intentionally. But a moment’s thought is all it takes to see that we, the American people, are not the government and vice versa. One example should suffice: when you rushed to finish your income tax return at the last minute on April 15, were you in fear of yourself and your fellow Americans or the IRS? ...