I came across this by Kris Murray in response to newsweeks article here.

...The author touched upon America’s ability to crush the Taliban swiftly in the Afghan war, a place where other great empires (Russia & Britain) had failed. We did not.

We won not because we are a huge superpower so much as we were liberators. We came in, we exacted justice, we are rebuilding. That we won so easily is what has scared so many countries. We had been so nice and low-key for so long, they lost sight of how powerful America is. The other countries were hoping we would, maybe not fail but, struggle more. They fear us not because we are bad, but because we succeeded too easily. But again, let me underscore that unlike previous countries, we were liberators (ultimately) in Afghanistan, not conquerors.

What many these other countries don’t understand is that America doesn’t do things the way Islamic fundamentalists and left-leaning socialist countries would. If we really wanted to “rule the world”, Peru, Mexico, and Venezuela would have been American states ages ago. That said, it floors me when Europe actually expects the US to give up its sovereignty to an international body. They call us arrogant when they clearly think the US is too stupid to see through their Kyoto Treaty stunt, amongst others.