I am anti-American

One of the lines "sensible" commentary uses a lot in Canada is the need to eschew "anti-Americanism" and "be mature" about the world. This usually means that we shouldn't criticize the Americans too harshly when their government does things like start illegal wars in places they don't know how to pronounce properly. (I swear to Allah, if I hear "Eye-rack" one more time...) Because you see, the "mature" way to deal with the world is to talk civilly with these people, and not offend their sense of propriety.

But here's the thing: The US government has a - bipartisan - desire to run the entire world, for the rest of time. We can dress this up and talk about America "providing global governance" or "maintaining global security", but the sum is as clear for Washington as it was for London in its time. Clinton was a more competent manager for the American imperial project, but he was no less devoted to it than Bush is. If anything, Bush and his cronies are just more honest about it. I've cited polls about this, and various political theorists, most prominently realists like Bacevich. Perhaps most critically of all, we can cite the public policy documents of the United States government itself - Washington is explicit that it will maintain America's primacy, forever. This is just as explicitly opposed, in these same documents, to the international or multilateral alternative. (Remember - the Pentagon thinks that the International Criminal Court and the Landmine Treaty are equivalent to Al Qaeda.)

Of course, the American bipartisan consensus contrasts markedly with the Canadian bipartisan consensus, which could be summed up as "Ottawa shouldn't run anything, including the territory of Canada, without American permission."

My point is that when I say "Washington wants to run the world, forever", I'm not holding a protest sign, or wearing a bandana, or typing between bong hits for that matter. The question for Canadians is quite simple: Do we support this or not? Do we value multilateralism, global institutions that check the power of all nations, or do we support unfettered American power for the forseeable future? Because if we support multilateralism, we're anti-American. If we oppose the war in Iraq and other adventures, we're anti-American. In short, the stated policy of the American government gives Canadians a simple choice: we can either respect traditional Canadian values, or we can support America's international goals. You're either anti-American, or you're anti-Canadian.

None of this is meant to gloss over the real, and large, dissent within America about America. But dissent within the population over America's role in the world is pretty limited there, too. Repeated polls show the American people overwhelmingly support the imperial project, so long as you don't call it that. There is almost zero political pressure to shut down America's hundreds of overseas bases, or cut the size of America's military to truly defensive levels, and there's precious little support for America abiding by decisions of the UN Security Council or the World Court if it means inconveniencing the American public in any way.

Neither is this meant to offend Americans personally, though it's possible plenty of them will be. I've got plenty of American family members (like many Canadians, the borders of my family don't recognize the 49th paralell) who I love and respect. Just as I wouldn't want to be held to account for the actions of the Canadian government, I don't hold individual Americans to account for the actions of their government. But we do need to discuss these matters frankly, without pretense.

We can't have a mature discussion if all we do is yell about America being a nation of genocidal fascist theocrats. But we also can't have a mature discussion if we assume, above all, that Canada needs to support America's role in the world. American objectives for the future already conflict with traditional Canadian international policy. The trends indicate that this cleavage will get worse, not better. (The history of the Clinton, Carter, and Johnson administrations doesn't indicate that Democrats will deal with the situation substantially different.)

In short, it is possible - and may be necessary - for Canadians to make a principled, rational, anti-American stand on issues today and in the future. There's nothing wrong with this, any more than it's wrong for America to decide what's in it's best interest without first considering if it coincides with Canadian policy.

As Michael Ignatieff said, we need one standard for everyone.