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Why Do They Hate Us?

© Copyright 2003, Jim Loy

There are people around the world who hate the USA. Of course, the USA is only one of the many targets of hate and violence. While we have many good qualities, much of this hatred is well-deserved. Here are some of the things that we do (in the past, and right now):

• We support the scum of the earth; brutal, totalitarian dictators who victimize their subjects. Saddam Hussein is a recent example. Noriega in Panama and the Shah of Iran are other examples. Batista in Cuba, a while back.
• We support the military overthrow of popularly elected leaders who are against us. Allende in Chile and Mossadegh in Iran are examples.
• We have participated in assassinations. Allende in Chile and Diem in South Vietnam are examples.
• We supply weapons, which are often used against civilians, including chemical weapons and land mines which are banned worldwide by Geneva Conventions. We even supplied anthrax and bubonic plague (for non-military purposes) to Saddam Hussein, when we liked him.
• We profit from third world countries who have massive poverty. OPEC was started to protect against us.
• We are the bully who gets what he wants, at the expense of the little guy.
• We think we are the good guys. [Well we are, sort of. We are mostly free, and we support freedom worldwide, to some extent. We give money, help, and medicine. We try to right wrongs]
• We are rich, many of us.
• Many countries owe us money.
• We support Israel (who does both good and evil).
• We are liars. Our government lies to us and to the world. The following scenario has happened over and over and over again, since WWII: We do something sleazy, like flying spy planes over the USSR; we are accused; we deny it; we are proved liars. We continue to do this today. Lies are so rampant, that we don't even believe what our government says anymore.

People worldwide seem to object to the Americanization of their own countries, symbolized by hamburgers, French fries, pizza, and fried chicken. But hamburgers would fail financially, if those people didn't want them. I suspect that we are not forcing hamburgers down any throats. By the way, I have read more than once that hamburgers are "devoid of nutritional value," which is untrue. While hamburgers are not the ideal food, they are packed with nutrition compared with most food.

We didn't deserve the cowardly act of 9/11. The people in the World Trade Center especially did not deserve it. The fact that we are guilty of some terrible things does not excuse or ennoble terrorism against us. But we need to clean up our act. While we pat ourselves on the back for doing good, we should actually do more good and less evil.

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