Identical U.S. withdrawals are read as prudence by Americans and cowardice by Middle Easterners.

Evidence

In the view of most Americans, these were sent on missions of mercy, in countries where no real American interests were involved. They were withdrawn when the intended beneficiaries proved murderously ungrateful. The idea that any American gov­ ernment would wish to add Somalia to its responsibilities is mistaken to the point of absurdity. In the view of many Middle Easterners, however, these Amer­ icans were engaged in an imperialist adventure. When attacked, they flinched and fled. — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 1661

Categorization

• XREF: A concrete instance of the perceptual gap Structurist/representational studies of the ‘America-as-empire’ frame — connects to Said’s Orientalism clustering on how US self-perception diverges from how the region reads US power.
• DEFINE: Illustrates the hermeneutic asymmetry: humanitarian self-image vs imperialist reading of the same events.