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Thank you very much for your thoughtful responses in the face of all that jingoism and kneejerk chauvinism. Nevertheless, I think the article is pure nonsense - the author never does explain convincingly why Americans "are hated", as he puts it. I don't know either, but I think it would be useful to know the minds of these terrorists. We know for certain that we are hated for our support of Israel, but what else? I suspect, and again I don't know, that the reasons are cultural and not economic or political as the author wishes - we are hated by these religious fundamentalists for being a culture of death, for abortion killing fields, for Hollywood violence, for Hollywood foul language, drugs and so on. Perhaps I am projecting my own feelings about our cultural decline, perhaps not. (Let's emphasize: this is not to explain, excuse or sympathize!!!)

Still, as we have seen from the exchanges on this forum for the past two days, this is not a good time for reflection, and that may be how it should be, the nation is at war.

"We know for certain that we are hated for our support of Israel, but what else?"

Support for Israel means support for Israel's excesses, which is what Arabs hate the most.

What else?

1)Support for corrupt governments like that of Saudi Arabia. It may our ally but it is corrupt to the core.

2)Support for anti-Muslim governments like that of Turkey. In the US, a mostly Christian country, a Muslim woman is free to cover herself up according to Islamic rules. But if a woman in Turkey, a traditionally Muslim country, chooses to cover herself she goes to jail as that is a criminal offense.

3)The bombing of Serbia makes Slavs hate us.

4)US support for the Muslims in Bosnia and Chechenya makes Russians hate us. NATO expansion pissed off the Russians.

5)The Gulf War and many US bombings of Iraq makes Muslims hate us.

6)The bombing of the Chinese Embassy pissed off the Chinese.

7)But what makes them hate us the most is US support for Zionism.

If you are willing to look with an open mind you'll find there are countless reasons.