Nevertheless, it seems that antimericanism is stronger than terrorism, so far from identifying ourselves as victims that undergo the same suffering, we celebrate what happens to them.

Even if Hebe de Bonafini, founder of the association “Madres de Plaza de Mayo” was capable of publicly declaring her satisfaction for the blasting of the Twin Towers and the resulting thousands of dead, there are millions of Argentine people who do not dare speak out their minds that much, but do not openly condemn the guerrilla attacks against the United States.

These are the same people who locally reject the defense of the western system of life that the armed forced created in the 70’s, with the excuse of condemning the way in which it was fought, as if a war could ever be neat and ethical; as if it were possible to avoid the excesses that are committed and the horror of it all.

The Argentine people are never willing to pay the consequences of their decisions. It is an immature attitude which is irremediably linked to populisms and this turns out to be the sociological explanation for the survival of peronism. Whichever may be the visible face of the leader during that specific period, the peronists know that the Argentine society does not accept responsibilities, they punish whoever reminds them about those issues and rewards whoever helps them to estrange them.

That is the reason why peronism is massively voted. It is not due to the social democratic bias of its economic policies, nor for its tendency towards statism; it is not due to its interventionist methods or its despise for the republican institutions. Absolutely not. Basically, the peronists win election after election because of the demagogy of liberating society as a whole from the responsibility of being the owners of their own fate .Because it is easier to accept our failure by blaming the world powers that take away what belongs to us than accepting our incapacity, our convenient comfort and our lack of resoluteness and effort.

At present, that society puts up that justice is run by those who used to put bombs in the 70’s and that pretend to be part of the “Zona Cero” in order to immortalize the terrorist action as if it were patriotic and heroic deeds. The adolescent society allows it in exchange of feeling no guilt.

On the contrary, the American people take full responsibility for their mistakes. Their authorities are theirs and they defend them, the same as with their armed forces. The United States is not afraid of being judged throughout history.

* María Zaldívar is a TV journalist from Argentina and Bachelor of Political Science (UCA, Catholic University of Argentina)
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