[liberallarry]

I read your post as impugning my patriotism. That calls for an intense reply.

On a more reasonable level, the situation looks like this to me; Based on my personal experience with them, many anti-Americans regard America as the great Satan - selfish, corrupt, greedy, brutal, tyrannical, evil. If one feels that way, morally one is obliged to fight against it as hard as one can.

It's an interesting situation. Morally, those anti-Americans are correct. Factually, they're wrong. That may seem strange but it's actually very common in human experience. How else would you characterize the combattants in religious wars? Or tribal conflicts?

Nor is it is easy - or even possible - to show these people the errors in their world-view. Again my experience is they'll rant and curse and refuse to listen. And if you get past that and show them an error in their thinking, they'll forget it as soon as you leave. But they will remember that they hate you.

[b_boru]

Probably true. Which is why the American (or Western) strain of Anti-Americanism is so dangerous. The US intellectuals and academics on the Left want to us to “see things from their point of view” and “understand how our foreign policy causes them to hate us”. But to sit back and try to see the “big picture” is not a luxury we have when faced with irrational, blind hatred that wants to destroy us.

[elbucko]

I read your post as impugning my patriotism.

No. your judgement or your syntax. Whichever is appropriate.