mhoyeDuring the first few weeks of Operation Desert Storm we'd routinely see footage of entire battalions of Iraqi soldiers walking up to the first American GI they could find waving white flags, believing that the worst thing that could happen to them at the hands of the American military was a shower, an MRE and a pack of cigarettes. The mythos of America as just actor was largely intact then, and that mythos saved a lot of American lives. And then Abu Grahib happened, and that all ended.
Owen@mhoye Any country, apparently, can have an atrocity-level international relations fuckup. Canada had its disasters in Somalia, looked around itself, and concluded it should probably not do that a second time. For the most part that decision seems to have held internationally, and while we don't have the same high regard we had in the 80s and 90s today, our reputation is still manageable.
The US... did not do that. The US decided that Abu Grahib was just fine, actually. And the world noticed.