Jingoism

Over in Pakistan, David Cameron declared that Britain would not become very involved in Pakistan's dispute with India over Kashmir, saying "As with so many of the world's problems, we are responsible for the issue in the first place."  Andrew Stuttaford at the National Review gets upset, and notes that the righty Daily Telegraph does likewise.

Neither Stuttaford nor the Telegraph disputes the merits of Cameron's claim.  Britain left a mess on its exit from its former colonies on the subcontinent, as it did with its Palestinian protectorate.  Rather the question is one of attitude: the Telegraph pines for the prickly nationalism of Gordon Brown, who declared that "the days of Britain having to apologise for its colonial history are over," and Stuttaford declares that Cameron's remarks reveal an "underlying set of beliefs." 

There is a certain kind of person who does not want a leader to criticize his country's history, even if that country has been in the wrong.  In some cases, a country may want to make clear that it doesn't see itself as deficient in moral authority, but if the rest of the world does see it as deficient, then that doesn't matter.  Soft power isn't just a matter of self-assertion.  Britain and France have nuclear weapons and Germany does not largely because everybody understands that the world trusts the former but not the latter with nuclear weapons.  Russia and China are less worried about America's security umbrella at their doorsteps than they would be about Germany or Japan, respectively, possessing similar economic strength.  Moreover, the ability to grovel a bit about one's past is an excellent excuse for not taking on a diplomatic or military quagmire. 

The always sanguine Brits can pull this off much better than the Americans, because, the Telegraph notwithstanding, they seem to have far fewer prickly, hypersensitive nationalits.  "Oh, no, I'm afraid we can't take that on, chaps.  Seem to always be making a mess of things.  Really you're best off working things out on your own." 

But why should Americans be hypersensitive about criticisms of Britain?  Stuttaford is a native of Britain, but is now an American writing for an American audience.  Nor is he the only American conservative reacting this way.  "But it's a Western Civilization thing. The Judeo-Christian-Greco-Roman tradition and all that."  Come now, you're not serious.  This has nothing to do with Shakespeare or Michaelangelo.  "No, but the West as a political civilization."

But Western civilization, like all other civilizations, is responsible for countless horrible crimes.  Caesar's invasion of Britain, for example.  Beginning with the destruction of Troy over what appears to have been a consensual elopement, continuing with the Athenians' treatment of Melos, Alexander's inhumanity in Persia, the Romans' crucifiction of the Savior of Mankind, their unprovoked destruction of Carthage, the German Holocaust, the Communist Russia's genocides, and the whole invention of totalitarianism, the Spanish massacres in the New World, and the like- the West really has quite a bit to answer for even before you consider "politically correct" subjects like Hiroshema, Nagasaki, the Crusades and colonialism.  No point in getting defensive about it.