Why Do They Hate Us?

[The Straight Story]

Why Do They Hate Us?

In the days following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, many people I spoke with simply could not understand why anyone, anywhere, would not like Americans, even if it was just a few dozen fanatics. In one form or another, they asked: Why do they hate us?

Back in 2001, I tried to address this question in a short essay I wrote one month after the attacks. Given the mood of the country at the time, I did not submit the essay to any newspapers or magazines. I gave it to friends and posted it on the Internet and left it at that. Ten years later, I thought it might be useful to rewrite and update the essay. But when I reread it, I discovered that there were only a few sentences that I would change. So I have decided to repost it, without changing a single word, as a sort of time capsule. I have even left in the incorrect number of victims, which, thankfully turned out in the end to be significantly lower. I have added a few comments at the end.



1. WE'RE CLUELESS
Writing in the LA Weekly (September 21-27, 2001), John Powers put it directly: “They hate us because we don’t even know why they hate us.” Most Americans have no interest whatsoever in what goes on in other countries. If we lived in Bhutan or Equatorial Guinea or some other country that really is relatively isolated from the rest of the world, this ignorance might be excusable. But the United States is intricately involved with almost every other nation on the planet. We buy and sell raw materials and finished goods everywhere; we are the biggest weapons broker in the world; the CIA operates in every nation, and so on and so forth. Several years ago, when patriotic Americans tried to launch a “Buy American Only” campaign, they discovered that it couldn’t be done. Our toys come from China, our oil comes from Saudi Arabia, even products that are advertised as “Made in the USA” use parts that are produced abroad. There is nothing inherently wrong with this interdependence, but as long as we are so deeply involved with other countries, we really should take the time to find out what is going on “over there” and what other people think about our actions.

2. SABRA AND CHATILA
If the names Sabra and Chatila do not ring a bell, please reread the first sentence of reason #1 before going on. From an emotional point of view, Sabra and Chatila are the Pearl Harbor of the movement for Palestinian independence. In September 1982, Israeli troops surrounded the Palestinian refugee camps of Sabra and Chatila in southern Lebanon and stood by while Christian militiamen, over a three-day period, massacred at least 800 people, including women, children and the elderly. Foreign journalists, including Americans, who entered the camps as soon as the killing was finished, were sickened by what they saw. Unfortunately, the Israeli defense minister who approved the action was none other than Ariel Sharon, who is now the prime minister of Israel.

One might wonder why an act committed by Lebanese and overseen by Israelis would arouse hatred against the United States, particularly as the US government officially condemned the massacres. The reason is simple. The United States provides $3 billion in aid a year to Israel. As the rest of the world well knows, Israel could not survive without US aid. Those Muslims who hate us do so not just because of Sabra and Chatila, but because they blame us for every outrage and brutal act committed by the Israeli government.

http://www.allgov.com/Top_Stories/ViewNews/Why_Do_They_Hate_Us_110909

[LeftinOH]

1. My first reaction on the morning of 09/11/01: "This was inevitable". Most of us probably

felt the same thing, but it was truly astonishing in the days that followed to find out how incredibly clueless so many Americans were (and still are).