America: How can smart people be so dumb?

We are again in a bipolar world — not that of the Cold War, but a psychological one. At one pole are the triumphalism, ecstasy and jubilation of America’s enemies; at the other are denial, disbelief, humiliation, anxiety and fear as its friends and allies lament another sign of the end of Pax Americana. Although I swore allegiance to Queen Elizabeth when I became a citizen of the UK, I never felt other than Lebanese in my 38 years in cosmopolitan London. The culture shock when I moved to the US made me feel British for the first time.