a colleague and friend saad bin tafla, wrote an article a few days ago in which he bid farewell to america, the country he has always loved, criticizing the rough treatment that the traveler receives at its major airports, and how america, which he has known for decades, is fading away every time he visits the country.
in his article, the colleague touched upon the serious political tensions that america is suffering from as a result of the raging dispute between the liberals and conservatives from the trump group, in addition to its other intractable problems related to dissent about issues of abortion, the proliferation of guns, same-sex marriage, and many others such as prison overcrowding with more than two million inmates.
the friend continues to say that he still feels gratitude towards america for the distinguished education he received, its great role in the liberation of his homeland, and his belief that it is the most beautiful country in the world, but its star is near fading, so he decided to say goodbye, once and for all.
it is not fair to reduce america’s situation, or bid farewell to it because the treatment at its airports has become humiliating, or because its police have become fierce with people arriving from different parts and different colors, not even because of dozens of other intractable issues that were mentioned or not mentioned in the article.
the united states means to human civilization much more than what it appears and will appear in the foreseeable future, no one can substitute it, neither china, nor russia, nor entire europe, for america is greater than all of them.
on the day the corona disaster struck the world, the faces of all human beings on the globe turned to their scientists and sciences, staring into their eyes, holding their breath, anticipating the news that would come out of their universities and medical laboratories about the vaccine against a deadly epidemic which terrorized about 8 billion people.
america is still, and will remain for a long time, the only hope, medically, economically, and even militarily. it is the only one that can stop the emergence of another “hitler”, and these are matters that we usually know their value but very late.
the last soviet leader, mikhail gorbachev, was astonished at how the soviet union preceded the world in going into space, and succeeded in sending thousands of satellites, but failed to make a spoon that does not stick to food, let alone the inability of the union and russia to manufacture tens of thousands of products to match the half-high quality of the us.
even china, which today needs more than 8,000 civil aircraft, cannot manufacture one, with high efficiency, without the use of the technologies of dozens of giant american companies.
what america is complaining about today is freedom, and what put it above the world is freedom as well, and it is not possible to accept freedom without accepting its consequences to someone degree or another.
china may soon surpass america economically,
russia may precede america in terms of missiles
and europe may surpass america aromatically
however, none of them can replace its universities, research centers, scholars, doctors, authors of their novels, films, arts, or all their creativity, and none of these countries collectively or individually will become a source of enlightenment for the rest of the world. three-quarters of humanity will not accept the culture of china or russia.
the haters of america will continue to hate it, and the throats of the senior iranian religious men will shriek at the wish of death for it.
our people will curse it with every dawn prayer, but in the end, all of them will line up the next morning in a long queue in front of its embassies, requesting a tourist visa or a study visa as students cannot find a better university other than the american, or find a cure for a disease from which there is no hope of curing except in america or to obtain medicine that is only available in us pharmacies or to fight starvation with food that only its farms can provide.
this is a bitter, sweet america.