🚀 go-pugleaf

Dweezil Dwarftosser <f4wcs@yahoo.com> wrote:

>Todd Morman wrote:
>> 
>> Anyone who fails to see that there are reasonable grounds for many in the Arab
>> world to feel rage at the United States is a fool.
>
>Oh?  I fail to see any reasonable grounds for "many" Arabs to feel
>rage
>at the US.  Please enlighten me.  We've done _nothing_ to justify such
>an emotion.

FWIW, I think that's part of the problem.  If I were to personally
piss people off to the degree that they want me dead, I'd like to
think that I'm at least clued in enough to know that, and might even
be able to figure out why they're so enraged. That wouldn't
necessarily mean I'd think they're right, but it seems to me that
normal instincts for self-preservation require awareness of the
reactions of others to one's actions.

Anyhow, here's a short list of why some in the Middle East might be
enraged at the US:

1.  US foreign policy in that region tends to be oppportunistic and
fickle.

An example of this is how the US funded Afghan Islamic fundamentalists
while they were fighting against the Soviet Union, but discarded them
in 1991 when the last Soviet troops withdrew.  Did you know that the
US contributed about $20 billion to the Afghans during that time?
Guess who was among them at that time?

2.  US handling of the Israel-Palestine conflict

The first Oslo Peace agreements were signed in 1993.  Since that time,
Israel has received approximately $8 million per DAY in US aid (over
$23 billion). This represents about one third of ALL US foreign aid.
The Palestinian Authority has received approximately $0.  Strangely,
the Palestinians tend to view this as though the US were taking sides.

3.  US foreign policy with respect to Iraq

The US-led economic sanctions of Iraq have brought a lot of suffering
to average Iraqis but no change of government.  Thousands of Iraqi
children a month die in Iraq due to malnutrition and related diseases
(e.g. dysentery), and for some reason, that seems to evoke strong
emotions.  

Of course, we did it all because we're so awfully fond of Kuwait and
not because it happens to sit atop a shitload of oil, but apparently
not everyone believes this.

Ed