Hatred Towards America Part 2?

George H.W. Bush had this to say in a 1998 Time article, when asked why US/UN forces didn't go after Saddam Hussein after Iraqi forces were pushed out of Kuwait in the Gulf War.

"We would have been forced to occupy Baghdad and, in effect, rule Iraq. The coalition would instantly have collapsed, the Arabs deserting it in anger and other allies pulling out as well. Under those circumstances, furthermore, we had been self-consciously trying to set a pattern for handling aggression in the post-cold war world. Going in and occupying Iraq, thus unilaterally exceeding the U.N.'s mandate, would have destroyed the precedent of international response to aggression we hoped to establish. Had we gone the invasion route, the U.S. could conceivably still be an occupying power in a bitterly hostile land. It would have been a dramatically different--and perhaps barren--outcome."

Seems like besides running the CIA and being a one term president, Bush Sr. was a a fortune teller, for his own kid.

You should realize that the Marshall Plan and the rebuilding of Europe after WWII wasn't done out of American benevolence but to insure communism didn't spread to our allies. To think Europeans hate America is ridiculous, what they hate is our perceived interference throughout the world in an effort to spread our hegemony. It would be ignorance to think anything done in Europe during the cold war was done for any reason other then to protect our own foreign policy interests and the Europeans are far from ignorant. Ingratitude is a strong word, giving a gift and then expecting overwhelming thanks and gratitude negates the gift and is in itself a form of arrogance.

As far as the civil war in Iraq, if anybody had taken the time to study the dynamics of the area or even looked through previous intelligence regarding the effects of an invasion the resulting situation would have been extremely obvious. The invasion has resulted in a much larger threat for America and a huge increase in terrorist activities all things that GW's father and Clinton were made aware of by our intelligence community. Iraq before the war was a threat to America in what way, I'm curious as to how you can defend this statement.

I certainly love America but at times the arrogance of our leaders is shameful, Europeans, our allies (Britain, France, and Germany) I think become discouraged with us when we don't treat them as equals or totally disregard them to further our own interests.

M.A. History

Funny, I don't know what Bush has to do with this country's history of always coming to Europe's rescue when they are on the verge of completely destroying themselves. What you say is absolutely true. We saved Europe from destroying itself in WWI, we saved Europe again from destroying itself in WWII, we defended Western Europe from the Communist threat for almost 60 years, and now that we're engaged in a war on global terrorism they insist that we behave and act more like them? This is not Star Trek where we are all citizens of Earth! America should ALWAYS come first if you're an American. It's lonely up here at the top, and there's only room for people that don't mind being number one.

1.)How do you deal with people who have such a cruel outlook on your lifestyle? Never had to (aside from on the internet) fortunately. 2.)Is it common to see the double standard of the acceptance of lesbians and not gay men? I don't know but I think I might know their "reasoning"; when people make reference to the Bible about Homosexuality, since there is not mention of Lesbianism being wrong, they would focus on male homosexuality since there is. Though those people don't realize that since the Bible was physically written by man much of the Bible was a collection of socieltal rules of the time (and it would be easier to get people to follow your rules if they think it's the word of God); for example most of those people refer to the Levitical law against homosexual relations between men. However, there are 613 Levitical laws many of them concerning only historically applicable themes that reflect more the cultural of the time then God's will and it is all considered one covenant, so if you mess up on one thing you've broke all of the laws. The other is Romans 1:26-to 1:32 written by the Apostle Paul; many people translate that as the opposition to Pederasty - a common practice of the Romans at the time rather then Homosexuality between concenting adults or condeming Heterosexuals who commint Homosexual acts. Plus the Bible has been translated numerous amounts of times and things are bound to get lost in translaition. As far as Lesbianism not being mentioned I'd assume it was because of the misogynistic culture during the time the bible was written. And then the New Testament teaches forgiveness and mercy: Christ is the embodiment of the Law, the word of God made flesh. That law is put to the death on the cross so that we may live in grace the grace of God, and not in the condemnation of the law. Meaning, all of the laws made by man in the Old Testement (including the one condeming Homosexuality) were abolished when Jesus died on the cross.

They have been anti-American for decades. And just "because". It *is* just an immature thing that is taught and accepted in their culture, Europe, the Commonwealths, our allies.

If any of you lived abroad before Bush and weren't busy bashing your country (because then they really like you), then go ahead and discuss. But if you're going on nothing than the crap they're feeding you, that they don't hate us - they hate our government, you haven't got a clue.

The world citizen is not like an American. We are not taught that it's okay to encourage hatred for others. The USA is not the problem with the world.

Pretty much EVERYONE on the planet dislikes us. UNLESS we are giving them $$ OR are rescuing them from some dictator / military force / terrorist group. And then we wonder why our deficit is so high. We give up the $$ and then dismiss the debt.

We are in a loose / loose situation. Give up the cash-dismiss the debt and they love us (for a time). Tell them to get bent and refuse to help-they hate us. We should just tell em all to get bent and start helping our own here for a while. Secure the borders, fight the drug problem, etc. Give them a taste of life without an "on call police force".

I'm not really clear, what is your question. It sounds more like an opinion piece.

As Americans, we've pretty much always been hated by our brothers in Europe. Even in war, they've not appreciated us. "The trouble with the Yanks is, they're over sexed, over paid and over here." But we're always the one to save their sorry butts, give them financial aid and technology. Simply stated, they want our money, not us.

They believe us to be loud and boisterous, I believe them to be pompus and two faced.

As for Iraq, history shows (for anyone willing to look at it honestly) shows that we all had a hand in creating the situation that lead to war, but only a few were willing to stand up and correct the mistakes of the past. The others, were more interested in lining their pockets full of corruption.

Well Johnny, there's your answer. "America is the parent to the world". That's the kind of attitude that got you into the situation in the first place.

Yes you rebuilt Europe after WW II but you destroyed it during that war too. Not that it wasn't necessary in order to win.

As long as you view the rest of the world as "spoiled children", there is going to be a lot of opposition to whatever you do.

as long as everyone else gets what they want out of America, they will like us. if we don't allow ourselves to be willingly extorted, by the un(useful) or north korea or that whack-nut in iran or kyoto protocols or whatever, we are bad self serving imperialist crusaders. i think they can all F@#$ OFF!

but hey, just my opinion.

North Korea threatened to bomb America, Why aren't we there if we are protecting America....Maybe because THEY DON"T HAVE OIL!!! We have no business in Iraq. We were supposed to be after terrorist and there are terrorist in every country. How many Americans have blown stuff up to get people to see their point? You can't invade a country for that.