Why Does the World Hate the US?

[The Duke]

Where are those numbers coming from?

[The Duke]

Everything that the modern day Republican leadership believes in. The War in Iraq, backing out of the Kyoto treaty, backing out of weapons test treaties, not signing the landmine treaty, SUVs, a lack of paid vacations and similar rules for workers, and being rich.

You mean the Kyoto treaty that John Kerry voted against?

Clinton didn't sign the landmine treaty, either.

You don't think Demcorats own SUVs?

[The Duke]

The reason that no one has sent the number of troops wehave is that no one has our capabilities in terms of land forces.  The only other countriesthat have our numbers in any respectable quality are India, who is busy dettering against a Pakistani attack, and China who isn't exactly our best pal.

[The Duke]

A lot of the problems that the US faces in the world is due to our idealism.  We hold ideals that are very attrictive, but have often failed to live up to them.  If we want the US to be better liked we need to either start following those ideals, even when doing so costs us in the short term, or become less idealistic so that the additional leaving of hate that comes from acting hypocritically doesn't happen.  Far too often in the Cold War and now in the War on Terrorism we have tolerated and even supported "good" dictators.  For instance when he attacked Iran Saddam was a "good" dictator, while when he attacked Kuwait he was a "bad" dictator.  His actions were the same, but we objected only when we didn't like his choice of target.  Whether consistent idealism, consistent realpolitik, or our current mix is the best foreign policy for the US depends upon what you want from it.  If the goal is to be liked, it is the worst policy, but being liked is hardly the most important thing for the US to worry about.

You hit the nail on the head there. The reason the US is disliked is because we don't have a consistent foreign policy. Sometimes we support dictators and terrorists (sorry, when we like them, they are called "freedom fighters"), sometimes we oppose them. It has nothing to do with this "they're jealous" BS. They hear us talk about spreading freedom and democracy and then wonder why we support some tyrrannical regimes.

We should just come out and admit it; we don't want everyone to have a democracy, we want everyone to have a government that is friendly to the USA. Whether that's a democracy or a dictator, we couldn't care less. That's the USA's foreign policy; it's based on what's best for big business in this country, not what's best for the people of the country in question.

Do you really think if we supported democracy everywhere that Al Qaeda would lay down their arms and say, "We like America now!"

Of course not.

Look, I've talked to you about this before and I think we basically agree that we ought to promote democarcy and we're often to cautious about where and when we do it.  But don't kid yourself into thinking that Islamic fanatics hate us because we have big corporations, they hate us because Britney Spears corrupts their youth and secularism erodes their power base.

[The Duke]

Anti-Semitic jokes are not funny, Gay jokes are not funny, fat Jokes are not funny, Black jokes are not funny, Arab Jokes are not funny, Chinese jokes are not funny, and French jokes are not funny.

You must be so much fun at parties.

[The Duke]

More important question: why does Kerry hate the US?

Funny sh*t.

[The Duke]

And what is that, Gabu?

I bet I couldtake a wild guess , but still, spell out exactly what you think we should do.

My own view is that the world doesn't hate us, just Europe (and some countries that are culturally very much like Europe) and the Islamofacists do.  And who cares what they think, anyway.  Most of them were opposed to us taking out the Taliban.  They preferred that we try to extradite bin Laden.  Who in their right mind would say that the right response to Pearl Harbor would be to take Yamamoto to the World Court instead of defeating the Empire of Japan outright?