Why They Love To Hate America?


Written by S.G. Jilanee • Cover Stories • February 2010

It is a paradox that while many people hate the United States worldwide, they also love many things that America offers.A question has arisen," as Mahatma Gandhi would say. Why America is almost universally hated? The reasons are legion. Some hate it for fun. In February 2003, for instance, Carolyn Parrish a member of the Canadian Parliament for the ruling party declared on television, "Damn Americans. I hate those bastards." Then the Toronto Globe and Mail conducted a poll on its website, asking Canadians whether they agreed that Americans are behaving like "bastards." And more than 50 per cent answers were in the affirmative (Nicholas Kristoff; New York Times, March 7, 2003). Others may be jealous of its power and riches. But the majority hates America, because it is perceived as arrogant, hubristic, selfish, deceitful and totally untrustworthy.

Yet, America does not care, following Emperor Caligula's dictum: "Let them hate us as long as they fear us." It revels in creating "shock and awe." If that fails to produce desired results it tries to buy the hearts and minds of people with a profusion of dollars.
From the Spanish-American War of 1898 to the Iraq invasion of 2003, the U.S. has always been deceitful. On both occasions it attacked before its ultimatum had expired. Since 1946 it has been running a "terrorist training camp," called the School of Americas (SOA), renamed since 2001 as Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation. The School "trained more than 60,000 Latin American soldiers and policemen. Among its graduates are many of the continent's most notorious torturers, mass murderers, dictators and state terrorists," wrote George Monbiot in the Guardian. Compared to madrasahs, this was "Terrorism University" par excellence.

America topples governments that do not toe its line, through sanctions, fuelling unrest, using its Special Forces for sabotage activities and encouraging the assassination of heads of government. It maneuvered the overthrow of Iran's Prime Minister, Mosaddegh in 1953 and the assassination of Chile's President, Allende in 1973. And in 2003 it invaded Iraq unilaterally to topple Saddam Hussein.

Blind self-interest and blatant lying, are the two core ingredients of American character. The first overshadows all other considerations - ethical, moral, legal and its much-vaunted "values." U.S. foreign policy is factored on naked self-interest. Even its claim to democracy is hollow. As Gary Younge once observed in the Guardian, "America supports democracy when democracy supports America." Otherwise, it has no qualms in engaging with dictators and autocratic rulers. In Chile, for instance, it supported the brutal regime of Gen. Pinochet backed dictators like Ayub, Yahya, Zia and Musharraf.
But, when its purpose has been served, America discards its best allies like a passé odalisque. The Shahinshah of Iran had acted as its most obedient servant. But when he fell from power, America did not spare even a six by two feet patch of its soil for his burial. America "begot" and raised Taliban, but forsook them after the Soviet retreat from Afghanistan and now it is hunting them to death. Nor does America care for the damage its actions visit on its allies. As a result of its support for the U.S. war against the USSR in Afghanistan, Pakistan was flooded with lethal weapons triggering a law and order situation that the government has been unable to control.

America treats itself above all laws and conventions. It dismissed the International Court verdict and declared it a terrorist state in its covert war against the Ortega government in Nicaragua. In the Iraq War it visited the worst kinds of tortures on the detainees in flagrant violation of the Geneva Conventions. In Japan (Okinawa), Romania and Poland, Americans violate civic laws and get away with it. In Pakistan, when their diplomatic cars were intercepted for using fake number plates, the U.S. ambassador raised a hue and cry. But in all these countries though the governments may be friendly towards the U.S. the people hate America.

The United States has earned the seething hatred of the "Arab Street" for its support of Israel's blatant aggression and human rights abuses in Palestine. Its shameless invasion against Iraq, the merciless massacre of its innocent civilians and horrific torture of suspects swelled the ranks of America-haters and created many a suicide bomber. The same is now happening in Afghanistan and Pakistan where its drones and aerial attacks, respectively, kill civilians with impunity.

These reckless actions have spawned people like Maj. Nidal, who shot 13 people to death at Fort Hood; Farouq Abdulmutallab, who tried to blow up Northwest Airlines flight 253 on December 25 and al-Balawi who killed seven key officers of CIA and a relative of the Jordanian king, on December 30. Balawi's video, released posthumously by al-Jazeera TV, explains his reasons for hating America, one of them being the drone attack that killed Taliban leader Baitullah Mahsud.

America's relations with Pakistan present it as most ungrateful. Since day one of its life, Pakistan has been bending over backwards to prove itself as America's most allied ally. As early as 1950 Pakistan had "effectively ceded remote areas of its northern provinces to the CIA and the NSC (National Security Agency)." It literally did America's bidding, even if that meant stretching its neck out - from joining the CENTO and SEATO to allowing Badaber as the launching pad for U-2 spy flights over the USSR and, later, fighting America's proxy war in Afghanistan.

Pakistan came to America's assistance when the latter was desperately trying to woo China. This was a feat no other country in the world, including its "cousin," Britain, could perform. In return, Kissinger threatened Prime Minister Bhutto with making a "horrible example" of him and later, it imposed sanctions on Pakistan under the Symington and Pressler Amendments.

After 9/11, America threatened to bomb Pakistan into the Stone Age unless the latter supported its aggression against Afghanistan. Pakistan caved in. Disregarding international law, it turned into an enemy of the Taliban government of Afghanistan without notice, arresting the accredited Afghan ambassador and turning him over to America, besides rendering countless other services.

America has, since, honored Pakistan with the title of non-NATO ally. It has given promised money. But, it has always shied away from assisting Pakistan in resolving its core dispute with India that would ensure peace in the region. Its "partnership" is only strategic.

Lying is so endemic in America that in 1986, the U.S News and World Report magazine ran a cover story titled "A Nation of Liars," in which it discussed in depth how lying has percolated into every segment of the American society. Its finest example was President Bush's claim about Saddam Hussein's WMDs.

Some people question why, yet, there are long queues for U.S. visas. Many Islamic scholars go there for tableegh, some returning with commercial links to "establish business empires," and their children attend American universities. Why American fast-food franchises are jam-packed while "anti-American vitriol is painted on walls" all over the place and why is there enormous love for "things American," from blue jeans and T-shirts to rock music of Jimi Hendrix and Nirvana?

The answer is simple. The hatred is not against things American. It is against U.S. policies.