ultranomics

The following statements are all fact:

(1)The USA is by and large responsible for this Global Credit Crunch turmoil.

(2)They were also the first nation to kill millions of humans with the first atomic bomb.

(3)They are the biggest exporter of war, espionage, economic & military threat, and blackmailing of sovereign nations.

On his political blog, Real Clear Politics, Dennis Prager says,

“One of the most widely held beliefs in the contemporary world — so widely held it is not disputed — is that, with few exceptions, the world hates America. One of the Democrats’ major accusations against the Bush administration is that it has increased hatred of America to unprecedented levels. And in many polls, the United States is held to be among the greatest obstacles to world peace and harmony. “

Although the piece has a heavy right-wing bias, and goes on to say that its largely leftists that hate america and further that there is a lot about America that is also loved, especially by those on the Right, he does finish by asking:

“So what America does the American left love? That is for those on the left to answer. But given their beliefs that America was founded by racists and slaveholders, that it is an imperialist nation, that 35 million Americans go hungry, that it invades countries for corporate profits, and that it is largely racist and xenophobic, it is a fair question. “

BBC poll

It seems that many common Americans do not even realize that they have since long surpassed the UK and other colonial countries as the most hated nation in the world. So this article is about our American friends’ confusion over whether they are hated or not and why?

According to a new BBC poll it wasn’t just George W. Bush’s personality that made America so unpopular but there are underlying foreign-policy issues,” says Steven Kull, director of the Program on International Policy Attitudes, which conducted the BBC poll. “[Obama’s] election alone is not enough to turn the tide. People are still looking to see if there are significant changes in US policies.”

Ex President Bush said that these terrorists hate democracy & freedom and therefore attacked the USA. I beg to differ, those attacks were a result of anti-American hatred more than anti-Democratic sentiments. America, as a self-identified military big brother has been harassing much of the developing world for multiple decades.

“Shock, rage and grief there has been aplenty. But any glimmer of recognition of why people might have been driven to carry out such atrocities, sacrificing their own lives in the process - or why the United States is hated with such bitterness, not only in Arab and Muslim countries, but across the developing world - seems almost entirely absent.” The Guardian, Sep 13 2001.
The main reasons for the overwhelming cry is that the USA has bombed, suppressed Islamic Nations and restricted them financially, commercially and politically. This has snowballed since the demise of the perception of a communist threat. There is utter desperation that Washington is crusading against Islam and that recent events are only an excuse to continue a Christian oppression. Many Muslims believe that the American people have been deceived by their government. Others just want the endless poverty and strikes to stop. There is a strong feeling of repression and of being hated. A mood of resentment toward America and its behaviour around the world has become so commonplace in their countries that it is bound to breed hostility, hatred, and then renewed physical violence. The West calls it “terrorism”, they call it “retribution” against the American symbol of Western oppression. Another sore point is that the USA continues to protect, encourage and finance Israel’s 6 decades of ethnic cleansing in Palestine. The USA thwarts every humane gesture by the United Nations. The USA encourages and financially supports the slaughter of several hundred innocent people in Palestine every year by the Israeli death squads.

Global leaders in consumption

To sustain their lifestyle US citizens consume about 10 to 20 times the resources per capita of the average of the rest of the world including Europe. Americans think they’re the most productive people on Earth. They are not. They don’t produce the most. They just consume the most. Just as one example, they burn about 25% of the fossil fuels which are consumed by all people on Earth, but US citizens are only about 4% of the population of the Earth. So that means that they consume about (25/4)/(75/96) = 8 times the average of all other nations. US citizens consume about twice the fuel of western Europeans for approximately the same standard of living. But when countries which supply critical materials to the USA threaten to deny supply, the USA is quick to go in with the military to ensure continuation. Americans think that their excessive consumption is an indication of their moral superiority, but in fact the opposite is true.

An eye for an eye makes the World blind

Of course, there is no possible moral justification for killing 3000 innocent civilians on 11th Sept 2001. The 9/11 terrorist attack was a deep blow for the USA and the West as a whole. However in the grand scheme, this loss of life was but a mere drop in the ocean compared to the suffering inflicted on the world by the USA. Perhaps I should mention that the murder rate by guns in the USA is about 110 per million per annum or about 30,000 deaths each year for the whole country. So the deaths on 11/09/2001 equalled a typical 5 weeks of murders in the USA. The USA has killed about 150,000 people in Afghanistan and Iraq since 11/09/2001. That’s a 50-to-1 revenge ratio.

You can’t make someone love you by beating them with a stick. Americans should find ways of feeling good without killing people. Killing foreigners is not the only way to feel proud to be American.

Sometimes I wonder if the USA has been using a “Killing the chicken to frighten the monkey” strategy. In other words perhaps the US government does not care if they are killing the wrong people. Maybe they just kill tens of thousands of Muslims so that there will be general fear of the USA to make the world respect the USA. The “chicken-killing” strategy was used by Lenin in 1917/1918 when he ordered thousands of Russians to be killed at random to terrorise the population in general. One of his followers asked for trials so that the innocent could be spared. But Lenin said he could not allow innocent people to feel safe. He said that no one should be allowed to feel immune from the terror.

The USA in many ways is an excellent country. The real reason why the USA is rich and powerful is research. There is no country on Earth that invests so enthusiastically in real research as well as the USA. The problem is that this research is so often at cost to the rest of the world both in wealth and lives. Many of today’s achievements would not be possible without the help or aid of the USA. Many medical or technological advances and much human aid and third world relief comes from this rich nation [As an aside, I remain sceptical about the lunar landing - watching the hollywood film “Capricorn One” did not help the case either.]

Machiavellian mindset

If left alone the rest of the world could manage just fine. But if Americans want to be liked throughout the world they must genuinely like and appreciate other countries and stop thinking that the USA is the Big Boss of the world. Being the most powerful is not the same thing as being the best. Cooperation is better than subjugation. Affection is better than fear [Yes, some would disagree – e.g. those who have read Machiavelli and Sun-tzu.]

The USA has only 4% of the world’s people. So having friends is really essential, but Americans won’t make friends as long as they think that other countries are populated only by barbarians and theme park attendants.

America is perceived to stand for its commitment to democracy, the rule of law, human rights, and free speech, which ironically are the very source of the disappointment. It is the country that has a “World Series” of baseball with teams from all over the “World of USA”!

Maybe investing some profits from the USA global positioning system [GPS] into teaching basic geography to the ordinary Americans would help them realise the presence of other poor souls sharing this “world” with them.