US hated?

[Jon Ford]

Bob sez--
>and I disagree with your assessment that the USA is hated the world over.  
>I agree we have enemies...but it is not so much, and again I repeat, not so 
>much for what we do...but (where it exists) because of who we are....and 
>for that, I think we should make no excuses.
>
>

Bob-- I'm not a big flag waver, but I am always happy to return to my home 
in Silicon Valley after my travels abroad, where I am often surrounded by 
beggars and starving people (unlike in the US, where we keep these people 
hidden!).Of course, I would like to see my country protected from attacks 
like the WTC. I somehow don't see that much distinction between what we do 
and who we are. Can't we say "you are what you do"? Are the things the US 
does in the world really that laudable? Some are, and some aren't.

I saw an interesting program on 60 minutes last night featuring lower and 
upper class Pakistanis and their offspring, all of whom are eager to get 
into Harvard or Yale. The lower class Pakistani kids were beating stuffed 
dummies of Bush and Cheney with big sticks; clearly they weren't too bullish 
on the USA. The upper class Pakistani elders all claimed to love the US and 
its open,material, consumerist culture-- some had studied here and were 
eager to have their kids study here. Some were truly international, seeing 
the US as a second home. Their kids (at least the ones interviewed) were 
critical of the US and stated that they had a "soft spot for Bin 
Laden"--ie., they see that he does have a few points in relation to US 
Policy--even though he is a vicious terrorist. Go figure! Even some of the 
affluent adults admitted to being pissed off at the US foreign policy, which 
started off training the Taliban to be warriors against Communism and then 
abandoned the playing field, now coming back hard and heavy-- but a few 
years too late. So I thought this was a kind of a world picture in 
miniature-- affluent people around the world admire the US, hoping to get 
into some of the wealth and success we have going for us ( hey, I could go 
for some of that stuff myself!), and, depending on how liberal their values, 
they marvel at our freedom from the kind of stultifying,lethal, reactionary 
morality you see in Afghanistan. Younger people and especially the poor 
don't admire the US as much as they once did (although the situation may be 
different in Panama and Costa Rica--those places are fairly dependent on the 
US).But I would say generally it's what we do in the world theater, ie, our 
foreign policy, that makes us disliked among many people in many parts of 
the world. The war on terrorism, I would say, is not going to do much to 
turn that around-- in fact, it may lose us many of the friends we have in 
the Third World. Is that the Machievelian way? Well, perhaps-- but I doubt 
if it's going to be very successful in the long run. After we've killed Bin 
Laden and blown away the Taliban, what next?

Jon



_________________________________________________________________
Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp