"God Bless the USA"

Peace Corps volunteer Robert [not his real name, for obvious reasons] writes from Ukraine:

A friend received an sms message from a Lebanese friend currently in Beirut. The message simply said “God Bless the USA”. We have very limited access to news so we immediately went online and started searching for news about the US. Was there a bombing? What happened?

While I was searching, she was messaging back and finally received a call from him. In lebanon the news was reporting that Syria was finally pulling troops out. People were having parties to celebrate. People were in the streets shouting “God Bless the USA” and “God Bless George Bush”.

Wow, this sounds like a time to celebrate right? But my friends looked like they had been punched in the stomach. Just that morning they had double teamed me and insisted that the bush regime was the most evil on the planet and of course in the history of the US.

So why were they not happy? One meekly commented that perhaps this was
actually the result of Iraq etc. in spite of Bush’s evil intentions.
The other simply kept quiet beyond asserting that it was a stupid mistake to think that Bush had anything to do with this development.

It was if their entire world was crashing down on them.

Robert continues:

And in my effort to save their feelings, I resisted celebrating. I could see that it would only upset them.

I have resisted celebrating the elections of Afghanistan, the elections of Australia, the elections of Iraq etc, etc, etc. because it I know these events upset my friends in PC and in LA. Of course they know what is going on and it serves no purpose to rub it in their face.

I know people have discussed the reluctance of the left to acknowledge successes in the world by Bush but I wonder if I am the only person who is going through this kind of experience. I think not. I wonder how many people have learned to keep a little quieter about their opinions because of their environment are now celebrating our successes only on the inside.

Robert, like me, describes himself as “more liberal than most Dem
politicians on social issues, but I support the war and other initiatives.”

Could folks like us be the new Silent Majority?