by James Glaser
November 9, 2005

It no longer matters to the world if a headline about the United States is factual or not, because if it is a story about something we have done wrong, it is going to sound believable.

Not that long ago, most people in the world were on our side. America was looked up to and if some one said we did some despicable act, most of the world would say, "No way," or "Show us the proof." That was back when we were the good guys.

Today, post Abu Graib Prison photos, post independent media videos of our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, post Bush first strike doctrine, people are willing to believe almost anything about the United States. We have lost our credibility.

Today there is a headline in the British, Independent News, "US Forces 'Used Chemical Weapons' During Assault on City of Fallujah." Chemical weapons? Does that sound impossible for the United States of today?

The world knows that America is still the only nation to have used the ultimate weapon of mass destruction, the atomic bomb. Unlike American citizens, most of the world has seen the terrible effects of our use of chemical weapons in Vietnam. They have seen the birth defects that second and third generation Vietnamese suffer. The rest of the world's media is not as censored as ours is.

People the world over know about the Pentagon's testing of chemical weapons on American troops. Any negative reports about our country are now disseminated far and wide, while here at home, the same report might make 60 Minutes or Night Line, but almost never on the nightly news programs.

During the Cold War, the Soviet Union would make outrageous claims about what America had done in some far away place, and we could blow that claim off as unbelievable. Much of the rest of the world blew it off as unbelievable too, but not any more.

Now people know what we are capable of. They know we will attack a country, because we are afraid of them, or we want their resources. George Bush gave them that belief with his attack on Iraq. The actions of our military in that war have made almost any claim sound possible. Did we use chemical weapons in Fallujah? I don't know, but it wouldn't surprise me if we did.

Today we have a President, who in public has told the world that we need the right to torture people. President Bush wants our universally feared CIA to have the legal right to torture people, and he has set up prisons all over the world for that purpose. We no longer hide our crimes; we go so far as to publish photographs of American troops sexually torturing prisoners.

So, don't be surprised if you see headlines that make outlandish reports about what the United States is doing in some back-water country. And for sure don't assume that people would never believe charges like that, because we have done so many things, and tarnished our good name so much, that in people's minds the world over, we are capable of anything now.