Embarrassed Abroad

TOKYO—It's tougher than ever to travel abroad and feel proud to be an American.

We find little public support almost anywhere in the what used to be called the Free World—not among our current allies, nor from friends reclassified as antagonists.

It's hardly surprising, though somewhat unsettling, to feel it as an American in Paris—given the exuberant contempt for Bush that comes through newspapers, political posters and often creative graffiti.

In Britain, even the conservative tabloids are now considerably cooler toward the Iraq military mission they ballyhooed less than two years ago. Tony Blair recently got hammered from friends and foes after asking for more Brits to be sent to the firing line. He was openly accused of paying for Bush's re-election with British lives.

And here in Japan—another shanghied ally—Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi recently raised eyebrows across the islands when he made a mild, yet unprecedented, public statement in support of Bush's re-election.

In the shadow of China, with only a tiny defense force of its own, Japan is widely seen here as having been bullied into sending men into the Iraqi theater—even if they did manage to avoid much of the violence. Now, with the complete collapse of civil order in Iraq, Koizumi's pro-Bush statement, which might have been offered to spur spirits, appears mostly to have backfired. The local scuttlebutt has those words being penned in Washington, since it was such an unusual move.

That's a disgrace for them and for us. And people here know it. Because while neither Bush nor some of his brethren abroad will admit that a war is a bust if peace can't be won, at least some of the media abroad is documenting the obvious. Most media back home may be gun-shy in its reporting to avoid appearing partisan, but one American-owned news service is quite blunt in its broadcasts here, and people are listening.

"We used to want democracy, but we've changed our mind," said an Iraqi woman on CNN in Japan. "Now we want fuel, we want food. And we want the Americans gone."

Yes, it's embarrassing to be an American abroad. And worse still is that the view I got over here is a lot clearer than the one being offered in the U.S.

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