Why do they hate America? (Excellent essay!)

London Times ^ | 9-23-01 | Bryan Appleyard

[Clinton's a rapist]

The roots of this are obvious. We want the bully to be thick for the same reason as we want the beautiful model to be thick. We can't bear the possibility of somebody having strength or beauty as well as brains.

Excellent piece. Bookmarked.

[Texasforever]

WOW!

[TheDon]

So they blame the victim. It is a heartbreaking spectacle of delusion turned to savagery. What has America done wrong? In the days since September 11, its president and people have done nothing but demonstrate dignity and restraint. Bush will lash out, the chatterers said. But he hasn't yet. Bush is a bumbling hick, they sneered. But he isn't.

Well said, a nice commentary. The sane voices arise from the noise since September 11th.

Operation Infinite Justice: The Big Picture

[Dr. Frank fan]

Bump

and thank you for posting it.

[Alberta's Child]

I'll give one very good, understandable reason why "they hate America."

Former president Bill Clinton orders the United States military to rain destruction down on civilians in Serbia for two months to deal with nonexistent "ethnic cleansing," and people in the U.S. didn't even miss their favorite fast food and television sitcoms.

A bunch of hijackers cause one day's worth of destruction on civilians in the U.S., and suddenly it's an "act of war" the likes of which the world has not seen since Pearl Harbor.

I am in full support of the U.S. in this conflict, but this is something worth thinking about.

[MissAmericanPie]

90% gleeful over the destruction here? Kill them all, let Allah sort them out.

[ThePythonicCow]

You're right, Texasforever - wow.

bttt

[Texasforever]

I think the civilian casualties in Kosovo was about 2,000 due to bombing. I did not agree with that operation but it was an obligation under our treaty with NATO. But the fact remains, the death toll is fast approaching 7,000. I guess to some it was a "debt payment" of some sort and that is not acceptable.

[Dr. Frank fan]

I agree that clinton's actions need to be brought up more often. Funny how almost every single left-wing self-appointed genius commentator, in trying to explain why we are "hated", always mentions irrelevant crap like the Kyoto protocol, or Bush intending on pulling out of an ABM treaty with a nation which no longer exists. To leftists, it is stuff like this - fodder for left-wing coffee house talk - which really drives terrorists. Uh, yeah, whatever. (I guess the next explanation will be that terrorists training in Afghani highlands are seething at the US for not putting Social Security in a "lockbox"?)

But somehow they never, ever, ever bring up clinton and his "war", uh, "strategies" of bombing civilian targets from 15 thousand feet, like TV stations, aspirin factories, etc.

The closest they come is usually to wave their hands vaguely and mention that "America drops bombs" on such-and-such places. They might even specifically refer to Iraq, aspirin factories in Sudan, even Serbia.

Yet they never mention by name the mastermind of the attacks: Bill Clinton. Instead, it is deemed to be "America" which planned and carried out those wag-the-dog distractions, and so "America" is at fault (and, implicitly, on some level, "deserves what it got" - even though few of these jerks have the guts to come out and say that this is what they really think).

All this so they can continue to avoid criticism of their boy hero clinton.

I wonder why none of the left-wing "why they hate America" opinion columns even mention Clinton's name? Gee, I wonder.

All that having been said, one must admit that this did not start with Clinton and his civilian bombing tactics. Even without him they, and many others, would still "hate" America.

[Texasforever]

I think the civilian casualties in Kosovo was about 2,000 due to bombing. I did not agree with that operation but it was an obligation under our treaty with NATO. But the fact remains, the death toll is fast approaching 7,000. I guess to some it was a "debt payment" of some sort and that is not acceptable.

[Texasforever]

I was wrong the Kosovo civilian casualties were far lower than I stated

NEW FIGURES ON CIVILIAN DEATHS IN KOSOVO WAR

(Washington, February 7, 2000) -- About five hundred civilians died in ninety separate incidents as a result of NATO bombing in Yugoslavia last year, Human Rights Watch said in a new report released today.

[Alberta's Child]

The U.S. had no obligation under NATO treaties to engage in any action in Kosovo. In this respect, the U.S. in Kosovo was remarkably similar to the U.S. in the Persian Gulf War. The U.S. government put pressure on these organizations to draft resolutions requiring some kind of armed response to a problem, then used those very same resolutions to justify the armed response. It was all a lot of crap from Day 1.

The U.S. even used NATO as their "instrument" in Kosovo because they knew the United Nations would never get on board like it did in the Persian Gulf. If NATO didn't exist, I'm sure Clinton would have dusted off an old piece of legislation from World War II, scribbled out Adolph Hitler's name and replaced it with Slobodan Milosevic, and used that to justify his half-assed war.

[Alberta's Child]

When you add up the devastation to that region that will result from the bombing attacks, the depleted-uranium shells that litter the countryside, etc., I'm sure the toll will be much higher.

The numbers are less important than the principle that is involved here. The United States carried out a military campaign of dubious nature, and in the process they placed a higher value on their own military personnel (and political fortunes, in the case of Bill Clinton) than on the lives of foreign civilians.

If those aren't war crimes, I don't know what is.

[goldstategop]

This country is truly the light of the world and the beacon of hope for mankind. No wonder we're hated by our enemies. It is exactly what America embodies that has made people from all over the world come to our shores. And armed with justice in the confidence of our greatness we will win.

[Travis McGee]

I think the civilian casualties in Kosovo was about 2,000 due to bombing.

Not even close to that!

[FlyVet]

George Orwell noted in 1941: "In so far as it hampers the British war effort, British pacifism is on the side of the Nazis and German pacifism, if it exists, is on the side of Britain and the USSR. Since pacifists have more freedom of action in countries where traces of democracy survive, pacifism can act more effectively against democracy than for it. Objectively the pacifist is pro-Nazi." Elsewhere he wrote of the "unadmitted motive" of pacifism as being "hatred of western democracy and admiration of totalitarianism".

Orwell was no dummy. Too bad we already have a pacifist problem here. Thanks, one of the best I've read lately.

[Texasforever]

Yes I corrected that in post 12.

[Texas_Jarhead]

Judt's word "openness" is important. The fanatic - in Islington or Kabul - hates openness because he finds himself relativised and turns on the very society which permits his freedom of expression.

This is an interesting analysis. I have never thought of it in these terms. They feel impotent and therefore lash out at the society that, for the most part, ignores them.

[gcruse]

 almost every crazed cult in the world
believes there is a global Jewish conspiracy
run from Hollywood and Wall Street.

Where are the Rivero's of yesteryear?