Hatred of the US is Now Universal

http://www.counterpunch.org/cloughley08042006.html

August 4, 2006, By BRIAN CLOUGHLEY

Anyone who even attempts to defend the killing of the children in Qana by Israeli air strikes is criminally insane. There can be no justification for slaughtering children, in any circumstances, anywhere.

You feel revulsion when you see photographs of Israeli kids writing hate slogans on artillery shells that are going to be fired at Arab kids. In fact real human beings feel more than revulsion when seeing photographs of brainwashed hatred in the young: they experience utter despair because these kids are deliberately being taught to hate other who are different from them.

This isn't new, this insistence that young minds should automatically accept, embrace and expand on hideous loathing displayed by a previous generation. In Hindu India and Muslim Pakistan, for example, school text books on history and world affairs are bizarre in their one-sided portrayal of each other as terminally evil. Hatred in India and Pakistan is imbued from infancy, and there is little can be done in maturity to alter this attitude which is irrevocably instilled in other than a few highly intelligent free spirits who can rise above mindless racist bigotry.

It's exactly the same in Northern Ireland, of course, lest anyone imagine I espouse the notion that pea-brained hatred, to the point of desire to murder people because they are different, is the prerogative of non-Western peoples. Many Protestants and Catholics in Ulster behave like any other ignorant bloodthirsty thugs. Irrational hatred exists in lots of other regions and countries. Just look around.

And Palestinian children hate, too. They hate Israelis because their grandparents had their lands stolen and occupied by a foreign power which has ignored countless UN resolutions to obey the law. It is only because of unremitting US support that Israel has been able to defy the entire world and trample over the basics of natural justice. These Palestinian children hate Israel because it is a brutal and bigoted occupying power that denies decency and human dignity to a race of people who differ from them in looks, religion and customs. In other parts of the world this is called racism.

Israel is supported root and branch by the President and Congress of United States of America. They unconditionally endorse the actions, no matter how barbaric or bizarre, of a racist, nuclear-armed country that willfully ignores UN resolutions and assassinates people as a matter of national policy. In the course of providing support Condoleezza Rice declared that "An immediate ceasefire [in Lebanon] without political conditions does not make sense", which gave the Israelis the green light to kill the Qana kids.

Rice declared last year that "Israel has no greater friend and no stronger supporter than the United States of America . . . . The United States and Israel share much in common. We both affirm the innate freedom and dignity of every human life, not as prizes that people confer to one another, but as divine gifts of the Almighty."

If Rice and Bush so greatly respect the dignity of human life they would have ordered Israel to cease its murderous onslaught on civilians. They could have done it in a nanosecond, make no mistake. But they chose to encourage Israel in its killing spree.

Groveling at the feet of Israel is not just unseemly and pathetic, it is directly contrary to the ideals that Bush and Rice profess to hold. Israel is nuclear-armed, yet there has never been a peep of criticism from a US administration that claims to be gravely disturbed by the spread of nuclear weapons. Israel flouts international rules and should be held responsible for its flagrant violations of international trust and order, yet its very scorn for the UN is warmly endorsed by its patron and paymaster. Its deliberate murder of four UN officers and refusal to permit an independent inquiry into the atrocity demonstrate its utter contempt for the world at large.

Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, the repulsive Dan Gillerman said " . . . we grieve the deaths of those civilians and children. But it is very, very important to stress that they may have been hit by an Israeli bomb, but they are victims of the Hezbollah. If Hezbollah wasn't there, this would never have happened." His suggestion that the children might have been kept in Qana by force was the product of a diseased mind.

Which brings us to the gallant Israeli pilot who sent the MK-84 guided bomb smashing down on Qana to kill dozens of children.

The United States gives Israel about three billion dollars a year and provides bombs, airplanes, bulldozers and other weapons with which to crush and punish Arabs. There is but one caveat on the flow of cash: three quarters of it must be spent with US weapons' manufacturers. The US taxpayer funds Boeing and the rest of the death-merchants in one of the most blatant scams perpetrated against a long-suffering US public.

Washington provided the bomb that killed the children in Qana and bears responsibility for their deaths. Final responsibility rests with the brave airman dareman who flew his aluminum death tube high in the sky, free and easy, in no danger whatever from enemy aircraft or ground fire, then smashed three dozen kids to bits with his US-supplied bomb from his US-supplied airplane.

What does he think, now, this airman? Is he proud of himself? Is he the toast of his squadron? "Hey Gideon: what a hit you were", chuckle chuckle. Has he children himself? Does he look fondly at his kids at night when he sees them sleeping? Does he think of the kids he killed, blown to shreds by his US bomb from his US airplane? Will this man ever be able to sleep again?

The Israeli newspaper, Haaretz (more balanced than most) noted on July 31 that "The Israel Defense Forces have killed 97 people in the Gaza Strip since the fighting began in Lebanon. Most of them were armed, and the rest were civilians - children, women, men, the elderly. The large number of fatalities suggests the IDF is engaged in indiscriminate killing under the cover of the war in the north."

In Gaza, too, the Israelis pursue their berserk campaign of ethnic cleansing by murder. There is no point in trying to disguise it. And the US doesn't even bother to hide its endorsement of slaughter. Washington does, however, bother to tell silly little lies as well as large-scale ones. Here is Rice at her most fautous: "In the wake of the tragedy [in Qana] that the people and the government of Lebanon are dealing with today, I have decided to postpone my discussions in Beirut".

But Lebanon's Prime Minister, Fouad Siniora, had said "There is no place on this sad morning for any discussion other than an immediate and unconditional ceasefire as well as an international investigation into the Israeli massacres in Lebanon now."

So Rice left the region in dudgeon. The Lebanese wouldn't talk to her, but she couldn't bear to admit this and had to tell a silly lie to try to overcome her humiliation. Artistic she is. Cultured most definitely. But she is devoid of human compassion and ordinary common sense. She is, there is no kinder word for it, a booby.

The US approach to world affairs is disastrous. After 9/11 there were demonstrations in some countries in support of bin Laden's loonies, to be sure, but the overwhelming feeling was of support for America. There were enormous and absolutely genuine outpourings of grief and solidarity. Hardly a country but was one hundred per cent behind Bush, Washington and the American people in their time of national grief.

No longer.

America is the most hated nation on earth. In most countries its president is by far the most despised international figure. To read the State Department's Travel Advisories is to realise that for an American to take a trip overseas is a pretty grim prospect as there are so many countries to which it is highly dangerous for a US citizen to venture.

The reason that America is so detested, distrusted and abominated is that its president and his coterie decided their policy should be total aggression and antagonism. Diplomacy, courtesy and negotiation were for wimps. And thus they played right into the hands of bin Laden and his tiny number of dedicated weirdo fanatics.

Washington's immature truculence was at first considered regrettable but manageable by most civilised nations. But when the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq were ordered against the flow of international advice it became apparent that America had an erratic policy of chauvinistic domination. It became increasingly and embarrassingly apparent to America's friends that Bush and his coterie were determined to engage in an entirely one-sided gladiatorial contest. Their arena was the world, and US forces were sent to wage ferocious and bitter war on pygmy nations that could not possibly retaliate in any conventional fashion.

The fact that the Bush wars on Afghanistan and Iraq have become national military disasters does not disturb the Bush administration. Retaliation for US adventurism has been unconventional and enormously damaging, but Bush and his acolytes are comfortable with self-deception. Their optimism about "progress" in these chaotic countries is absurd.

The Bush administration belief that everything will be all right in the end ("We will Prevail") is becoming even more preposterous day by day. And one of the reasons the belief is so foolish is that the US has been even further isolated by its flat refusal to condemn Israel's atrocities. The US-made bomb that killed dozens of Arab children in Qana has been an enormous bonus for bin Laden, if he is still alive. But even if Bush policy did not play into his personal hands, it certainly played into the hands of all who recruit the militants and suicide bombers who are determined to take revenge on those who give Israel bombs to kill Arab children.

The peoples of Afghanistan and Iraq consider themselves occupied by foreign powers and are being told by influential figures in their countries that the US and Israel are waging war on Muslims. Moderate Muslims, such as President Musharraf of Pakistan, who went out on a very far limb by talking to a Jewish organization in New York in September last year, have had the ground cut from beneath their feet by Washington. Musharraf wants to encourage the Muslim world to recognize Israel and has tried hard to foster pan-Islamic tolerance. But after the Qana atrocity he and other progressive Muslims will find it impossible to even mention tolerance for Israel. And by deliberate choice of the Bush administration the US is inextricably linked with Israel's criminal ferocity.

Osama bin Laden may not be alive, but this is irrelevant because countless millions of Muslims regard him as a hero, alive or dead. Their reasoning is that he has caused a dramatic and continuing amount of disruption to the western world's economic and social structure. He has hit us hard. And his ongoing success in disrupting our lives is helped by the weaknesses of Bush and his people. Their smugness, arrogance and casual savagery are some of bin Laden's most effective weapons.

Osama bin Laden need never do anything again to ensure permanency and prosperity of his legacy of hatred. Thanks to the imperious policies of the Bush administration and its fervent support for Israel the United States is hated and despised to an almost unbelievable degree. Osama has won.


Brian Cloughley writes on military and political affairs. He can be reached through his website www.briancloughley.com

I find the title of this thread, and the article on which it is based, both offensive and wrong.

Not that you'll care.

edit to add: I think the thing that is most aversive of all is your habit of adding the little heart onto the titles of all your hateful stuff.

George Bush (both of them) probably will pat the man on the shoulder and
say "Heck of a job man, Heck of a job" and someone will make a movie calling him a hero and someone else will make a movie calling him a traitor. He is only following bushfamily orders

Me I would say throw kisses not weapons

I do not believe the article or the thread is an endorsement of the practice of hating Americans, but simply one explanation of why there is such hatred. That such a POV might help us understand and thus deal with such hatred would seem to be the intentions of both the poster and the author of the posted article.

Read the article, I do not see any hatred for ordinary Americans in it. In fact he illustrates that Americans are being fleeced and lied too by those who allegedly serve them.

The author is on our side in a way the govenment refuses to be.

Solve, I know you're trying to make some kind of a point but the subject line and title of this article kind of hurts my feelings. I don't hate America. And if you've been reading the posts on this forum lots of people have been very upset over what happened in Qana. Hell, a lot of Americans were IN LEBANON when the bombing started. I know at least 10 - actually more - Lebanese Americans. Notice the two are not separate in that? Lebanese Americans??? My next door neighbor growing up is a Lebanese American. One of my child's best friends in preschool was a Lebanese American. I became friends with her mother, as well. She was one of two mothers I allowed to watch my child without my presence. The lady and son who used to live in this house that my family rented to them were Lebanese Americans. They were good friends of ours. We celebrated Christmas together and sewed together and her son sewed up my child one time after an injury. And we hunted for antiques together and watched the home show together. Hell, my child's favorite shoes this summer were brought back to her from Lebanon and I have some evil eye beads brought back by my friends from Lebanon after I asked her to get me some.

How can you think I approve of what is being done to Lebanon - by either the Israelis or Hezbollah?

How can you be so short-sighted and so filled with anti-American hysteria not to see how many Lebanese and people of all nationalities are our neighbors and friends???

I wish you would use some of your passion and energy to figure out a way to make the situation better rather than just spewing hatred against us every time you get a chance. We're not as good as our propaganda says we are - but we're not as bad as you say we are, either.

I don't get it, has anyone suggested that hating Americans is a good idea? Have you read the article?

Where does the author endorse hatred of America?

Would it be better not to know why people do?

I don't think the title is offensive....it is a reflection of world condemnation and perhaps the feelings of many Americans at our current strategy in the ME and our foreign policy......It doesn't require us to be self-hating, but self-reflective.

And I don't think there is a need to be overly sensitive to this author's remarks...he obviously is greatly distressed by the deaths of these or any children and the lack of concern as evidenced by the media's interpretation of events and the excuse by some of the Israeli incursion into Lebanon........

he says why we are hated:

It wasn't the author of this article I was speaking to. I'm tired of people hating Americans.

I'm an American and I've spoken against many things about America. That's not being acknowledged - that American foreign policy right now does not necessarily = America. I didn't authorize the bombing of that building in Qana. I'm not jumping up and down on the graves of those women and children who were killed in the bomb shelter of that building. Or celebrating what we've done to Iraq.

And I'm sick of people blaming "America" for everything. Like we're all clones of George W. Bush, Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney over here!

If Solve and his fellow countrymen and women have such great insight and know how to run the world so perfectly then stop spewing insults and step up to the plate and lead!

I agree, the killing of children, under any circumstances, is despicable. But where are the outcries of rage when Palestinian terrorists kill Israeli children or when Hezbollah kills Israeli children? Oh, I forgot, some seem to believe that those actions are marginally acceptable because Israel's policies have "earned" that type of muderous insanity. After all, some say, these "put upon" people don't have a conventional state army to fight their enemies,, so terroristic actions are acceptable. When I hear righteous indignation condemning ALL murder of innocents, children and adults alike, then I will take seriously the moral indignation spwed by so many since Israel decided to confront the enemy "Hezbollah" who would destroy Israel and innocents within its borders, if allowed.

I will also add, that I am in favor of Bush calling for a cease fire from both Isarel and Hezbollah and his support of continued military action inside Lebanon by Isarel does nothing to solve the problems, IMO.

You have to admit that the rage against terrorist activities and the killing of innocents against the Israeli population is much more represented in the media than that of Arab/Muslim peoples.....I think the point is to bring some sort of balance to these hateful acts on the part of both and to quit the demonization of only one side......both have their errors and both their legitimate concerns.

At bottom it is the action of leaders (US/Israeli/Hezbollah/Hamas etc) not the average citizen of any country who are increasing the violence. And they are responsibile for restoring the peace for all of us.......heaven help us.

Solve is a "hit and run" poster with a ubiquitous track record. I give it the attention it deserves.

No, I can't admit that the "media" covers the killing of Israeli citizens more than the killing of Arab/Palestinian citizens because i don't know that that is the truth of the matter. Perhaps there's more coverage of those incidents because there are more incidents to report on? The newspapers I read seem to report on any lethal incidents, whether they be the result of Israeli or Arab/Palestinian actions. Anyway, I wasn't referring to the media, I am referring to articles that have been posted here and discussions that scream about the outrages of the israeli killings in Lebabnon, but I never see any outrage here when the media reports the murder of Isareli children and adults by Arab/Palestinian terrorists.

For sure he is a "hit and run" poster! I'm not sure if he doesn't respond to discussion because he is not fluent in the English language or if he's reluctant to reply to posters' responses because he fears he won't be able to hold his own in a vigorous debate of many of the views he presents.

I see what you mean here, Amy.....and I would suppose that the recent articles are more prone to describe what has been labeled as a "disproportinate response" on the part of Israel in much the same way as when we invaded the country of Iraq (think shock and awe) and which elicited the same response by many in the world community.

I do, however, think, personally, that the media portrays an unbalanced view even if that was not what you were referring to. I personally abhor the acts of violence no matter the perpetrator......and that goes for violence against Israeli children as much as Lebanese or Palestinian...or as the author states any children.

DW, why do you feel the media presents an unbalanced view? Is there concrete evidence that Israeli lethal attacks on Palestinians get less coverage than Palestinain terrorist attacks on Israelis?

Well, to me it is quite obvious that it is the slant represented by the major (American) news media sources that paints a picture of all Palestinians, for example, as being terrorists.....they present terrorism as the root of the evil instead of as a reaction to the oppression and occupation, the land and resource grab etc, and they confer upon the state of Israel the absolute right or justification to continue that activity......You very rarely, if ever, see the the bulldozing of people's homes, the diaspora created by displacing and reducing a people to an untenable living condition......the threats or maltreatment against ordinary Palestinian families.

We will not resolve these difficulties until it is understood that there are reasons for violence on both sides (still abhorrent) and that there are valid and legitimate issues of humanity to be addressed on both sides.

You are right, Steve, and I regret ever having called attention to this thread.

Yah what's up with that? Hit and run?

Actually don't regret it Peg.....some good discussion has ensued!!!

I agree with you on this. But terrorist activities should not be "justified" no matter what the "trigger" and the Israeli attacks on Lebanon to "chase back" Hezbollah should not be an acceptable means for handling Hezbollah's aggression towards Israel. But there is another issue here and that is the fact that there are those in the nations surrounding Israel who will be satisfied with nothing less than her destruction and no amount of Israeli fairness to the Palestinians nor a more balanced U.S. approach to the problems will make that fact go away.
So, as always, I see the problems between Israel and the Arab countries as complicated and not easily resolved.

Absolutely Amy.....not justified, but understood as a bad practice for trying to resolve any dispute......

We certainly have our work cut out for us Amy! What worries me is the shift of moderate Arab countries since this latest incursion.......I hope we don't lose that support.....it is critical to a regional peace.

I share your concern. Yep, our POTUS has managed to asume a most "unbalanced" approach to the Israeli /Palestinian conflict making it difficult for the moderate Arab nations to convince their populations that the U.S. is a "fair broker" to this conflict. Seems to me that his posturing might create more anti-Israel sentiments throughout the world while at the same time creating even more anti-American sentiments, as well. Great situation, huh? But one that can be turned around (hopefully) if we elect a person who is capable of pursuing meaningful diplomatic relationships. We can hope, can't we?