Why Do "They" Hate Us So Much? Well, Here's a Hint...

America: An 'Extraordinarily Voracious Country'

Sometimes I think American's wear really funny glasses. You know, like those X-ray glasses they used to advertise in the comics books in the 1960s? Except these glasses (the ones I think Americans wear) actually make a thing disappear when you look at it--you know, you can see right through it and everything. You just can't see it.

Three and a half years ago, America was attacked. Brutally attacked. Three thousand Americans died in New York, Washington, DC and Pennsylvania. And as we sat watching our televisions in shock, our first question was "Why do they hate us so much?"

The answers we got from the Bush administration of course--like everything else that issues forth from its collective mouth--were lies. "They hate our freedom." "They want to destroy democracy." "They thrive on chaos and hate peace." Yeah. Of course. Because they are a perverse race or a preverse religion. They hate and want to destroy the things that the rest of the world would love to have and aspires to. Freedom, democracy, and peace. "These people" are evil. Let's go kill them.

I happened to be writing a paper at the time which gave an awful lot of evidence that the developing world hates us because we a] exploit their labor, b] exploit their raw materials, c] lie about our motivation and purposes, d] seem, as a nation, so complacent about suffering in the world. You can read some of the results (uncited) here (if you want a copy with sources cited, e-mail me).

Here's an article from Tunis Hebdo (Tunisia) which gives voice to the many invisible (to us) excesses of American culture. In it, the author deals with the lies and hypocrisy that, in our political system, Americans are so quick to dismiss:

Also, no one is deceived by George Walker Bush’s explanations, the man who pushed for the invasion of the Mesopotamian country. The argument advanced to justify the war, that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, has been exposed as a fantasy. That was followed-up with these other fairy tales: that Iraq’s security services were behind the September 11attacks; that Iraq was able to launch a chemical attack within 45 minutes; that Saddam had purchased uranium from Niger; and that he supported al-Qaeda, etc.

As they are needed, new reasons come and go, but they don’t convince anyone. As for the argument about the dictatorial abuses of Saddam Hussein, that also rings false: In the Eighties, Washington never had the tiniest scruple about supporting the man in Baghdad, just as it supported other famous dictators: Marcos (The Philippines), Somoza (Nicaragua), Pinochet (Chile), Mobutu (Zaire), Batista (Cuba); and the list is far from exhausted.

The author then goes on to describe what much of the world sees as the "voracious appetite" of the American lifestyle--and the economy that supports it (my emphases):

A vast empire with planetary dimensions, the country of George Bush, which holds the destiny of humanity in its hands, is an extraordinarily voracious country. A prolific producer, it is also greedy, gluttonous and avid at consumption. Alone, the United States consumes almost as much as the rest of the world. An American consumes four times more energy than a European, five times more than one Japanese, 160 times more than all those in other countries. Per capita, no people on earth consume more meat, more paper, more wood, more oil, more steel, more uranium, more coffee, or more cocoa than the people of the United States. It is a way of life based on an abundance derived directly from plundering the raw materials of poor countries, consequently condemning to misery and underdevelopment whole peoples, whole nations and whole continents. America controls over half of the raw materials of the planet and fixes their prices at generally moderate levels so that it can sell them back to the countries they came from at exorbitant cost.

The author is quick to point out that the USA is in no way "congenitally evil," and in fact has been the object of admiration for most of the world in the past.

By taking note of this, by underlining what we believe to be true, we are in no way showing a "congenital hatred" toward the United States, a country of daring and enterprising men who have shown humanity the most fantastic discoveries in science and medicine. With its legendary dynamism and the self-sacrificing spirit of its valorous children, America embodies an engine, pushing the train of humanity toward progress.

So what happened?

A century ago, the great thinker Herman Melville assigned the U.S. a divine mission: "We Americans,” he wrote, “are the peculiar, chosen people ... We bear the ark of the liberties of the unknown world ... " When one hears and sees what the head of the White House is doing today, there is a yawning gap between reality and that mission ...

Bush must go.

IMPEACH BUSH!!!