Posted on 10/24/2004 2:06:23 PM PDT by pabianice
One important affect of the recent ghastly terrorism in the US is the growing realisation among Americans to know as to what makes this seemingly fair, generous, magnanimous and humane nation as despicable as to provoke human beings to commit suicide only to inflict the possible deadliest injuries on it.
Some stunning ironies intervene at this juncture. The US is a dreamland, an obsessive destination for about 95 per cent people of the third world. People enter America even if they had to die in the attempt an attempt not less than a suicide.
But yet it is the most hated nation in the world. The US is a great nation with a benign record rarely matched by other preceding nations as great as the US. The 4,000 years of recorded human history show conquest, invasion and religious conversion by the great powers. "The gap between America and the world's second mightiest country is the widest in history.
Yet America gives more aid, provides more humanitarian relief, gives more "debt relief," and continuously demonstrates a restraint of power", says a conservative columnist. Had any other nation been in the position of the US, it may not have been as peace loving and responsive to justice as the US has been. So the arguments go. Yet it could not maintain such a benign façade.
It is the first nation which embarked on enlightening the world by seeking independence from the mightiest British Empire, inspiring and helping the French Revolution. It grew to power on the ashes of imperialist powers but never opted to be an imperialist power.
It fought the evil of godless communism, Fascism and Nazism on its own cost. Yet it failed to evoke enduring respect from the beneficiaries. It is the first ever nation on the surface of earth that sacrificed its wealth and millions of lives to fight slavery on its own soil. Yet it cons the weaker nations into following a slave-master pattern of relation. It is that rationalist nation that set a unique precedent of separating religion from politics at a time when doing so seemed to be an utter impossibility.
It exactly followed the principle of Thomas Jefferson that in matters of religion "the maxim of civil government" should be reversed and we should rather say, "Divided we stand, united, we fall" meaning the separation of Church and State. Yet it rarely hesitates to demonise other religion, letting the rivals to riposte with religious weapon.
It showered its wealth on poor nations, including its defeated enemies like Japan and Germany, yet it proved to be less than that much magnanimous. Above all, it is the richest nation, which implies its greatness, showing the validity of its values. But yet its greatness is out of synch with the values essential for that much greatness.
It has lumped together values like respect for private property, the rule of law, individual rights, minimum government, free markets and civil liberty, yet racism lingers as rancid stench in its social structure. How America is tarnished by a mishmash of such benumbing contradictions may be revealed from a speech of Former President Bill Clinton.
While delivering his speech at University of California in 1997, he pointed to this beguiling nature of American society. "We were born with a declaration of independence which asserted that we all were created equal and a constitution that enshrined slavery. We fought a bloody civil war to abolish slavery but we remained unequal by law for another century. We advanced across the continent in the name of freedom, yet in so doing we pushed Native Americans off their land.
We welcome immigrants, but each new wave has felt the sting of discrimination." Given the besetting contradictions of American society, one has little to disagree with Ramzi Ahmed Yousef, the man who serves a life imprisonment for the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center, and who greatly shares the minds of those who recently inflicted injuries on America.
While confessing his crime he said, "Yes, I am a terrorist, and I am proud of it. And I support terrorism so long as it was against the US Government, because you are more than terrorists; you are the ones who invented terrorism and use it every day. You are butchers, liars and hypocrites." Such views are shared by a majority of Muslims who show no scruples in spewing venom against the US. (sic)
What makes such Muslims despise the US? Is it because of what a writer calls a product of jealousy by those who, being unable to catch it up, are bound to drag it down? Or because of the Islam's inherent belief system which leaves no room for the validity of other system? This comes as no less surprising when one sees that the United States, which, apart from a brief interlude in the Muslim-minority area of the Philippines, has never ruled any Muslim population, has surpassed in its hatred by Muslims all imperialist nations which brutally suppressed them.
Rather, Russia still enjoys more influence and prestige in Muslim Central Asia than any Islamic nation. So does the UK in former Muslim colonies. So, religion does not seem to have tinged the Muslims' antipathy towards the US. Had it been the case, the Islamic world must have despised the atheistic China more than the US, a Christian nation sanctioned by Islam.
The way the US is buttressing the illegitimate Israel on the land of Palestine may have exacerbated the wrath of the Muslim to the level of maniac animosity towards it, but the fact the radical Arabs could not be insinuated at times when the US showed scruples like not rushing to be the first nation recognising Israel and siding with Arabs during the Suez crisis in 1956, reveals the US good behavior towards the Muslims did little to inspire love for America.
Charles Krauthammer, a columnist of Washington Post, repines to see Muslims sotted with rage even despite the US sacrifices for their cause. "America conducted three wars in 90s. The Gulf War saved the Kuwaiti people from Saddam. American intervention in the Balkans saved Bosnia. And then we saved Kosovo from Serbia. What do these three military campaigns have in common? In every one we saved Muslim people.
And then there was Somalia, a military operation of unadulterated altruism. Its sole purpose was to save the starving people of Somalia. For such alliances and actions, we get over 5,000 Americans murdered." Professor Bernard Lewis in his book, "The Roots of Muslim Rage" tries to solve this dilemma, saying that the Muslims are disgusted with the unprecedented success of the Western powers, which resulted in a terrible loss of their authority and prestige at home, at national and at international level. " The Muslim has suffered successive stages.
It was too much to endure, and the outbreak of rage against these alien, infidel, and incomprehensible forces that had subverted his dominance, disrupted his society, and finally violated the sanctuary of his home was inevitable." If it were the case this might have affected the mainstream Muslim polity, which is, obviously not the case.
The western powers, especially the US enjoys pretty good relations with the majority of Muslim nations. Professor Lewis admits it saying the US policies never suffered disaster in the Muslim world. " There is no Vietnam or Cuba in the Islamic world," he says.
What revulsion the Muslim radical has against the US, as a matter of fact, doesn't arise because of any religious sensitivities, but shares the feeling and mood of all the people of the world, including Americans who, in one way or the other, are affected by the policies of the US.
One may not be able to enlist all the grievances of all affectees but mere reminding of US policies towards Cuba, Vietnam and Chile may suffice to help know why people hate America. In 1970, it was decided at a meeting in Washington held by Mr. Kissinger that General René Schneider, the head of the Chilean armed forces, should be murdered so that to block the peaceful, democratic, orderly transition of the elected president, Salvador Allende and to pave the way for a military fag who would unleash a reign of terror in Chile.
This was General Pinochet, who, like his sponsor, Henry Kissinger, is now facing in court the charges of committing inhuman atrocities. Kissinger's other business and political partners, Mr. Suharto, General Papadopoulos in Greece, the chorus of Generals in Bangladesh who committed the assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, ruled with ruthless hands with full support of the US. Not to speak of how the US supported Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein to crush Iran no matter with what weapon, even chemical.
Spoken this way, one faces almost no difficulty in concluding that the successive US regimes remained maniacally obsessed with creating an environment that guaranteed maximum mundane benefits no matter on what cost of human values.
Whether it is the life-long support of Israel or sporadic embracing of Afghan Mujahideen in 1980s, the motive remains the same. According to Chomsky, what America really wants is to steal from the poor and give to the rich. America's crusade against Communism was actually a crusade "to protect our doctrine that the rich should plunder the poor." (What Uncle Sam really wants). Thus, being flustered with such snobbish self-interest for long time, the US sometimes crosses all limits of humanity.
In a September 2001 issue of "the Progressive Magazine", the author, Thomas J. Negy, exposes an eye-splitting account of a secret document," Iraq Water Treatment Vulnerabilities" prepared by the US Defence Intelligence Agency in January 1991. It stipulates how sanctions will prevent Iraq from supplying clean water to its citizens.
The document states," Failing to secure supplies (because of sanctions) will result in a shortage of pure drinking water for much of the population. This could lead to increased incidences of disease .
Iraqi rivers are contain biological materials, pollutants, and are laden with bacteria. Unless the water is purified with chlorine, (the import of which is embargoed by sanctions) epidemics of such disease as cholera, hepatitis, and typhoid could occur." What a strategy to topple its former minion, Saddam Hussein, by killing innocent people with epidemics? Even Mongols in the 13th century would have shivered with a twinge of remorse if they had seen such a brutal strategy.
But even a paltry twinge of compunction this humane and civilised government never showed. Still we wonder as to why people hate America. It is a strange irony of fact that the government of a people who are the most generous people of the world, giving annually more than $100 billions in charity, happens to be the most egregious violator of basic human values.
This intriguing dichotomy isn't foolproof enough to prevent people from hating America.
"It is a strange irony of fact that the government of a people who are the most generous people of the world, giving annually more than $100 billions in charity, happens to be the most egregious violator of basic human values."
Pure BS
"Bottom line, the world hates the US because it believes the propaganda of the American Left."
Yes and not just the American left, but the entire left around the world. People believe evil things about the US because they believe it is true. Their worldview says so. What they believe to be true is shaped by what they hear and read and see. What they hear and read and see is hardly ever the full picture. They see the slice that their masters want them to see.
The less freedom a people have, the more likely it is they will hate the US.
jw
Your sentence structure is a bit mangled, but I get your point. However, I would argue that the rest of the world is ignorant of the internal American political distinctions of democrat vs. republican, just as the old joke:
A US soldier serving in Germany after WWII sees a scrawled sign saying "Yankee Go Home". He tells a local that the sign doesn't include him, "because I'm no damn yankee, I'm a Georgia boy!'
I think what really drives the rest of the world crazy about the US is our institutionalized bi-polar disorder. Just as the world gets used to one type of foreign policy, the US has an election and POW! all the old assumptions are tossed out and a new set takes their place. How much of the world's animosity is caused by the continual stress of adapting to a different tone from Washington? Maybe it is simply that stress that finally drives them nuts.Arafat is invited to the White House and Israel better behave.. POW
Arafat's a criminal and we pledge total support to Israel...POW
We need trade protection...POW
We decry protectionism...POW
Apartheid must end!...POW
We won't do business with S. Africa...POW
We demand non poliferation of Nukes and build a missile shield...POW
Let's give N. Korea nuke material...
ON and ON and On. I don't know how to solve that one. The only solution I see is for Americans to finaly agree that socialism does not work and abandon it. The root problem is still socialism, that high sounding and oh so reasonable prescription for the death of us all.
Scary. The writer just assumes that his Pakistani readers are familiar with Noam Chomsky. "According to Chomsky..." he writes, seeing no need to introduce Chomsky further. If Asians have the offhand familiarity with Chomsky that the writer assumes, then it's no wonder anti-Americanism is prevalent in Asia.
Just imagine how much better off the world would be if international writers could just say "According to Horowitz..." or "According to Sowell..." or Hayek or Hanson, and have their readers nodding in immediate recognition.
Let's get the US out of the third world and the third world out of the US. close the borders already. we've had 40 yrs of immigration. time to digest.
Our way of life is a threat to them, we either give it up, or we fight back. I can't help but notice that there have been no further attacks on our soil since we decided to stand and die in Iraq. We can now be defeated only by our enemy within.
All you have to do is read these three words and know exactly what the rest of the column said...
The muslims hate america, because america is the only western nation that they cannot bend to their will. That is what infuriates them. NO matter what they do or threaten, we still keep siding with israel.
All U.S. aid should be considered a loan. Lowest interest rate 0% going to those governments allowing citizens the highest levels of freedom. Funding should be loaned by the governments to the citizens to start businesses. Or funds should be used to back local banks providing micro-loans to businesses. Forget the huge hydro-electric dams. Stimulate small business growth.
15% rate goes to the authoritarian governments. Loans to be secured with raw materials.
If we're going to have foreign aid, we might as well buy what we want, capitalism.
It exactly followed the principle of Thomas Jefferson that in matters of religion "the maxim of civil government" should be reversed and we should rather say, "Divided we stand, united, we fall" meaning the separation of Church and State. Yet it rarely hesitates to demonise other religion, letting the rivals to riposte with religious weapon.
Re: the so called separation of chuch and state, our Constitution merely says that we will not establish a state religion, nor interfere with the free practice of any religion. No Muslim nation can claim that feat, and that is their downfall. As for demonizing religion, I think that most religions, if not all, coexist pretty well in America. Can most Muslim nations, i.e. Pakistan, claim even the smallest degree of tolerance for any other religion? No, they can't. Christian churches are grenaded and burned, and their followers are treated like second class citizens at best, lepers at worst. Don't point the "demonizing religion" finger at us, boys.
It has lumped together values like respect for private property, the rule of law, individual rights, minimum government, free markets and civil liberty, yet racism lingers as rancid stench in its social structure. How America is tarnished by a mishmash of such benumbing contradictions may be revealed from a speech of Former President Bill Clinton.
I wonder if their is a single culture or race that does not practise some degree of racism or, in the case of Pakistan and many other Muslim nations, religionism to a degree that would make us look like angels. For a nice example, look at the Sudan.
While delivering his speech at University of California in 1997, he pointed to this beguiling nature of American society. "We were born with a declaration of independence which asserted that we all were created equal and a constitution that enshrined slavery. We fought a bloody civil war to abolish slavery but we remained unequal by law for another century. We advanced across the continent in the name of freedom, yet in so doing we pushed Native Americans off their land.
Ye Gods! See the Sudan, the Jews, any nation where Islam becomes the religion of the government. They don't simply "push them off their land," they exterminate non Muslims!
Whether it is the life-long support of Israel or sporadic embracing of Afghan Mujahideen in 1980s, the motive remains the same. According to Chomsky, what America really wants is to steal from the poor and give to the rich. America's crusade against Communism was actually a crusade "to protect our doctrine that the rich should plunder the poor." (What Uncle Sam really wants). Thus, being flustered with such snobbish self-interest for long time, the US sometimes crosses all limits of humanity.
Well, now we get to the meat of the matter, and realize why Cuba, Vietnam and Chile were mentioned: because noted American communist Noam Chomsky objects to our fight against communism. If we were so inhumane and interested in "plundering the poor (Muslims)," why is Saudi Arabia still in existance? Kuwait? Iran? Have we flattened Iraq? Why did we go into Afghanistan? For the poppies?
In a September 2001 issue of "the Progressive Magazine", the author, Thomas J. Negy, exposes an eye-splitting account of a secret document," Iraq Water Treatment Vulnerabilities" prepared by the US Defence Intelligence Agency in January 1991. It stipulates how sanctions will prevent Iraq from supplying clean water to its citizens.
The document states," Failing to secure supplies (because of sanctions) will result in a shortage of pure drinking water for much of the population. This could lead to increased incidences of disease .
Would this be the UN sponsored sanctions? Hmmmm......
Iraqi rivers are contain biological materials (WMDs???), pollutants, and are laden with bacteria. Unless the water is purified with chlorine, (the import of which is embargoed by sanctions) epidemics of such disease as cholera, hepatitis, and typhoid could occur." What a strategy to topple its former minion, Saddam Hussein, by killing innocent people with epidemics? Even Mongols in the 13th century would have shivered with a twinge of remorse if they had seen such a brutal strategy.
Then why didn't the peaceful Muslim nations surrounding Iraq persuade Saddam to reveal his lack of WMDs and his peaceful intentions? Why did they all ignore the plight of the Iraqi people?
But even a paltry twinge of compunction this humane and civilised government never showed. Still we wonder as to why people hate America. It is a strange irony of fact that the government of a people who are the most generous people of the world, giving annually more than $100 billions in charity, happens to be the most egregious violator of basic human values.
Worse than say, Pakistan? Exactly which basic human values are we violating? Are we being compared with the genocide and slavery that STILL exists in Muslim countries? Do we value our women less than our cattle as happens in Muslim countries?
This intriguing dichotomy isn't foolproof enough to prevent people from hating America.
Nor is this Chomsky inspired, pro-infidel hating screed fooling anyone, except perhaps the few street Muslims that can actually read.
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