On the celebration of our country's beginnings it is our duty to try to understand how its image as a great shinning beacon of liberty has been warped into that of a small-minded brute with a flamethrower.

THE NEW AMERICAN ORDER

Fri Jul 4, 2:23 AM ET
Richard Reeves

By Richard Reeves

LONDON -- "What exactly do you think you're doing around the world?" a French reporter asked me the other day. He was not the first nor the last. They are "dissing" the United States all across what Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld calls "Old Europe."