PARIS, Sept 12: Americans living in Europe are used to being lightning rods, catching flashes of criticism when Washington throws its weight around and enjoying the calm when the world smiles at the United States.
The attacks of September 11 set these private antennas crackling away with unexpected messages and acts of sympathy and with some cynical satisfaction at America’s misfortune.
One year on, the solidarity has ebbed. Images of the crumbling towers of the World Trade Center are receding into Europe’s video memory.
There’s much less talk in the air now about America the victim and much more about America — and specifically President George W. Bush — as a potential aggressor in Iraq. Complaining to the nearest American is back in style.
Kathie Bolognese said the “tremendous support” seen after the attacks had given way among her British, French and German friends in Brussels to a rising concern that Bush would unleash a war despite strong reservations among his allies.
“The whole unilateralist approach is a turn-off,” said the communications consultant from Long Island, New York.
“We’re going it alone so much that we’re not getting much sympathy anymore,” remarked Chicago native Michael Sito, a banker in Moscow. “The word ‘arrogant’ comes up a lot more now,” added a telecommunications executive in Paris.
WAVE OF SYMPATHY: Looking back, many Americans recall with wonder how so many Europeans reached out in sympathy — and with bitterness at the way some just took another swipe at the world’s superpower.
“I got calls and cards from neighbours saying they hoped all my family was OK,” said Gabriel Vizzard from Los Gatos, California, who works with IBM in Paris.
Being a New Yorker myself, I worried about cousins who worked on Wall Street and appreciated the words of support I heard in Paris in the days after the attack.
Watching the scenes of horror broadcast live from New York, I received a call from my French mother-in-law who said: “I’m so sorry to see what they’ve done to your city. I’m so moved, it reminds me of when President Kennedy was shot.”
For months afterwards, just saying I hailed from New York triggered lively talks with salesmen, barbers and taxi drivers.
Thomas Atkins is another American journalist working for Reuters. He spent the day in Frankfurt watching coverage of the attacks on television. “That evening, friends at a martial arts club said they were sorry for what had happened and asking if I’d lost any family or friends,” Atkins said.
One U.S. reporter in Berlin was amazed when a former German girlfriend, forgetting their messy breakup the year before, called in tears to say she had to tell him how upset she was because he was the only American she knew.
WALKING DARTBOARDS: But even then, there were surges of the criticism Americans abroad attract like walking dartboards, even when they have no reason for being a target — except the fact that they’re the nearest available Americans.
Kate Tracy, an 18-year-old from Houston, Texas, living in London, was upset when some friends at her English school laughed during a moment of silence some days after the attacks.
“They said it was their political right not to observe the minute of silence because they didn’t believe in what America was doing,” she recounted. “This hurt me.”
Other Americans reported that some European colleagues talked during minutes of silence in their offices, with some mocking the patriotism and flag-waving.
Paul Collins, a singer-songwriter who lived near the World Trade Center, was shocked when he and his Spanish wife moved to Madrid a month after experiencing September 11 up close.
“People were saying things like ‘America got a taste of its own medicine’,” said Collins, who runs the Manhattan Martini Bar in Madrid. “I was a little disgusted because this was not just an attack on America but on the entire western way of life.”—Reuters