In My Opinion

Why Does America Criticize Others’ Successes?

By Andrea Osterhout

While the United States government has a clear pattern of intervening in other countries’ international affairs, media coverage of these events teaches U.S. citizens to view the actions of the ‘other’ as barbaric and wrong. Democracy has been so ingrained in the minds of the American public as the only way societies can work. If a society’s actions differ from our black-and-white definition of democracy, we make the excuse that “they have a long way to go” before they can be “like us.”

The media’s coverage of the events of the Arab Spring in Libya, specifically of the death of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, is a clear example of the critical nature of the American media. An article in the New York Times fails to give credit to the Libyan people for overthrowing an abusive dictator. Instead, the article solely focuses on how the violent nature of Qaddafi’s death reminds us that they have a “‘hard road’” ahead toward democracy. The article is quick to point out the problems with this Arab nation. “The balancing of vengeance against justice, impatience for jobs against the slow pace of economic recovery, fidelity to Islam against tolerance for minorities, and the need for stability against the drive to tear down of the pillars of old governments” are all major issues distracting Libya from becoming a democratic society.

Regardless of how the U.S. feels the Libyans should have handled the capture of Qaddafi, who are we to judge? Why does America feel the need to criticize when we, for example, are reluctant to admit our wrongful treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay? The U.S. needs to realize that what the Libyans decide to do with Qaddafi and the future of their own country should be up to them. It is not our place to criticize the Libyans’ success.