Why do they (terrorists) hate us (americans)?

Because of the things that America has done to them over many decades. American foreign policy, embargos, military intervention has caused immeasurable suffering in some countries. Few Americans really know much about America’s actions in many cases. They don’t hate you for no reason. America invading Iraq for no reason (What WMDs?) didn’t help much with other third world countries.

Because you (Americans) hate them (“terrorists”)?

The subject feels quite complex and I think there are no easy answers. What makes up any persons issues and character? What makes us believe what we believe? There is a lifetime of experience and conclusions behind every persons action.

I think that many times grievances that are just, mixes with unfair blame and transferred feelings of animosity towards anything they can find that fits the blame; always some form of authority.

Poverty, neglect, and delusions breed lost people that want something to blame and easily commit to a cause. Sometimes any cause. This is the case in the west and it is the case everywhere. It can go either way. We see this in neo-nazi groups and gang building, people joining extreme religious groups and kills abortion doctors. Others are swooped up into society and finds a place after all.

Why do people hate America? As @DarkScribe said there are just grievances against the US. The sticky fingers of America are all over the planet. Militarily, politically and economically. You can tell by the size of your military which has around thousand bases in about 130 countries. You can tell by that if the US has an economical crisis, the world has a crisis.

It is unfortunate, but it’s not all bad. It could be worse and it has been. We need democracy and we need balance in the world. Pax Americana is in place. But the world is changing into a different place. It will become better. This can only be achieved if the world consist of somewhat balanced powers. In these times, the world is unipolar, where one country controls world politics and economy. The European Union is an example of what is growing all around the world.

In this world that is unipolar, some grievances against the top dog is just, and other are just transferred. Some people have personal grievances. It’s easy to hate america when you dig out your parents after a bomb raid. Some just are lost souls who have been taught to hate, or finds a home in others peoples opinions. Most second generation immigrants in Europe who travels to combat american troops in the middle east have no just personal grievance.

@YoKoolAid I don’t think there are any people in the middle east that hates you and wants to kill you personally. Not because you are you or that you are american. Remember, there are plenty of people in America that could be labeled terrorists, and are people that makes a much bigger threat to society and you than any Osama bin Laden out there.

I don’t want to downplay the problem or international terrorism, but the thing is that most Muslims do not hate America. And most people in these countries do not support terrorism and killing.

@oratio the thing is the “terrorists” hate people like me even though I have nothing to do with legislation or anything of that nature….to them I am an enemy just because of where I live or what I do.

why have Arabic nations and western one’s, in generality, never gotten along?

because we keep sticking our noses in the other’s business.

@YoKoolAid
Yes they do. There are fanatics and hate in every country. It’s seems that there are quite a few people who likes to use the epithet “Sand Nigger” in the US after 2001. And there seems to be discrimination of Muslims in general.

There are places in Africa I shouldn’t go to just because I am white. But most people in the US don’t want to go to the middle east and kill people, just as most people in the middle east have more important things on their minds, like having a job and a family, spending time with friends. Hating Americans is not in the top of the to-do list.

I thinks it’s Self Evident

East and West have met and, with apologies to Kipling (and everyone else), it has been a bit of a twain wreck. The nations where Islam is practiced are non-industrialized and they have been taken advantage of by the industrialized West. It is easy to feel guilty and chastise ourselves, but if the economic situation were reversed, they would be the ones taking advantage of us and we would be the ones feeling resentful. You can pin the blame on capitalism.

It is interesting to note that at the height of the Roman Empire, the most advanced civilization in the world was in China. After the Roman Empire fell and education declined in the West, there was a flourishing of the arts and sciences in the Mideast associated with the introduction of Islam. There was also an advanced Hindu society in Northern India that was responsible for our decimal numbers, the so called Arabic numbers. By the time of the Renaissance, all these civilizations were in decline. One may ponder what would have happened if this were not the case.

@LostInParadise True. This is why we need balance in the world due to strong economies around the planet, and not where few controls the conditions of the many.

@oratio I agree strongly with most of your points but just want to say, I have never heard anyone use or even heard of the term “sand nigger.” Is this something you have read about or actually heard used? Not denying that there was prejudice against Arabs after9/11, just have never heard that level of derogation.

@janbb I admit that that was generalizing. As I don’t live in the states I can’t speak for common conversational language, but I don’t believe that it is that common. “Quite a few” might have been wrong to write.

I just go by what I read and hear on the web, which – I admit – is not very representative of everyday America. The terms “Towel Head” and “Sand Nigger” are some that I’ve come across several times though. It has made it to the the dictionaries.

I don’t mean to say that americans in general are racist. Not at all.

@oratio Thanks for the clarification. I was aware that you don’t live in the States and thought it might be a media distortion you had read. Of course, I can’t speak for all of America so they may well have been in use, but I haven’t seen references to those terms broadly in the newspapers here. (I don’t listen to shockjock radio, so I may not be totally right.)

Well, if you want bin Laden’s printed opinion (since he’s arguably the most famous terrorist nowadays), 9/11 Attacks Were Retaliation against American-Israeli’s Aggression on
Lebanon, Palestine.

I believe they are jelous when they see American movies that we are so well off and they live in dusty environment with no good civilization.

@ESV Sure. I am sure people feel jealous about how Americans live, as well as how Europeans live. But we also often forget how much the people in the world admires America in contrast to the resentment.

@ABoyNamedBoobs03 Yet if we dont get involved then were still the bad guys because we wont help them out.

its a retarded cycle….

Watch American news, movies, and television. Listen to the lyrics of eminen and the likes. Dive into pop culture and you begin to realize where foreigners get there American perspective from. They see Americans as disrespectful, hypocritical, greedy, and selfish idiots who feel like they are entitled to a life full of cars, big houses, and a lavish lifestyle made up of purely worldly possessions with no compassion towards those less fortunate. As an outsider America looks horrible through all of our international networks.

The summary of the summary of the summary:

For the past 200+ years, Western nations have been meddling in the affairs of the Middle East. None of the borders really reflect the desires of the people who actually live there; they were drawn by the European powers.

In the late 1940s, the Western nations carved out the new country of Israel. This ticked off a lot of people in the area.

Since the 1960s, American foreign policy in the Middle East has been about extracting the oil from the area as cheaply and efficiently as possible, and about proxy wars with the eeeeeevil communists. We supported bin Laden when he was a thorn in the side of the Russians in Afghanistan; we supported Saddam Hussein when Iran was our enemy and Iraq was our friend. The vast majority of the 9/11 terrorists were from Saudi Arabia, but we didn’t say boo to the Saudis and invaded Iraq instead.

The local people are well aware that we are pursuing a foreign policy based on cynically exploiting them just so we can get their natural resources cheaply. They want us to leave them alone, they have learned that we do not care about their concerns and that we will play power games with their governments. They cannot match us in conventional warfare, so terrorism is the last recourse they have to get us to go away and leave them alone.

They hate us because we exploit them ruthlessly while having no respect for them. It’s as simple as that.

@critter1982

So? That gives them the right to kill 3000 people in a terrorist attack?

This question is asking about terrorists specifically, not Muslims in general.

What about the image I have of the Muslim world where women are oppressed and killed for being unfaithful and not allowed to drive and homosexuals are executed in public? You don’t see me supporting the killing of them en masse.

@ESV Hm..perhaps you should update your knowledge as to the level of civilization around the world. Since when is there no civilization in Saudi Arabia, the Emirates, Kuwait, Malaysia, Indonesia, turkey etc etc etc? Many of these countries have absolutely nothing to be jealous of either in regards to finances or culture and rich and interesting history.

Perhaps the way some Americans look down on others is one reason for resentment, but also maybe Americans, as well as Europeans, should remember that people around the world have their own standards and might even feel that Americans have no civilization?

The first thing is to differentiate between terrorists and cultures. Most people around the world, Muslim or not, just try to live their lives. Few are terrorists or sympathize with terrorists.

@dominik: what are you talking about? I never said anything about killing Americans. The question was why do terrorists hate Americans not why do they kill us.

Terrorists are also killing (and presumably hating) Aussies (Bali bombing) Brits, threatening Germans, etc. and of course killing each other. They hate pretty much everyone. And hey when you get 40 virgins for killing yourself and a bunch of infidels, it’s a pretty good deal. Now they are stuffing bombs up their butts so they can get through security checks. They are a lovely but misunderstood and exploited group.

Islamist terrorists hate all western civilizations.

It’s all about The Price of Oil

Because they are brainwashed into hating the US, the common scapegoat in countries where the government and the media are a bit too close together.

Blaming the US for the hatred directing against it is as stupid as blaming Jews for anti-semitism.

Islamic terrorists hating “all Western civilizations” is kind of ironic, considering where Western Civilization originated.

@laureth Originated? I don’t follow you.

@oratio: If you go back through Rome, Greece and Egypt, you realize it all started in Mesopotamia/Fertile Crescent, which is modern-day Iraq. (By “it,” I mean the suite of things we now call Civilization. Cities, writing, monumental architecture, civic religion, layered social structure, etc.)

“They laid down the law… in Mesopotamia!”—the B52’s ;)

This is why the bombing of large swaths of Iraq is a shame beyond all the people killed, etc. – think of all the precious, old, irreplaceable things we’re destroying. Civilization’s cradle, fergoshsakes!

They hate us for our freedom, so if we keep passing things like the patriot act in response to terrorism, eventually they will leave us alone.

@laureth Yes, I agree. I cry inside. And I imagine there are Christians feeling extra shame for returning to what essentially is the land of Eden – Iraq, Iran – like this. It’s in a way like desecrating your parents graves. But the Iraqis did a good job of desecrating their own heritage as well.

I think two particular sources can explain this entire issue.

The first is the CIA, and their own concurrence with what outside reporters have mentioned, at the CIA’s own website: https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/vol48no2/article10.html

The second is Osama Bin Laden, and his letter to America: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2002/nov/24/theobserver

The CIA article gives the background for some of the things Mr. Bin Laden mentioned. (Also, Bin Laden’s antisemitism and/or the Guardian’s translation cause his langauge to be polluted… but the crimes he rails against were committed partly by Zionists in specific, not Jews in General… but this has stirred up general hatred unfortunately and he, in bad form, uses the term “Jews” errantly, when he really is talking about specific Zionists).

But the CIA article is obviously analytical, and the Bin Laden article is basically a glimpse into the man’s mind and motivations.

@laureth – Islamic terrorists hating “all Western civilizations” is also kind of ironic, considering those terrorists appreciate western education, medicine and advanced technology.

True, dat. And trade as well.

It’s a little bit like the holy-rollin’ Crusaders going to conquer Jerusalem, and coming home with a new appreciation for things like science and medicine, eh?

Also, there’s not that many terrorists in the world. The whole thing is hyped up because it sells policies that enrich the corporate Security-Military-Industrial Complex

Because they’ve been taught from a very early age to hate. It’s based on jealousy of our hard earned, superior standard of living.

Those that answered like @DarkScribe: Disgusting. If you think America sucks so much give me your address so I can send you your one way plane ticket.

@Noel_S_Leitmotiv To where? He’s Australian.

Those that answered like DarkScribe.

Australia can have him.

Back a few years ago when people like me were complaining about BushCo’s policies, neo-cons and other ‘patriots’ were telling me that if I didn’t love America, I should leave. “Love it or leave it,” they said.

However, one of the things I love about America is that we are free to try to make change from within – it’s organized like that. So now that change came from within, and we have new people in office trying to clean up BushCo’s mess, the neo-cons are complaining.

And I wonder this: why is it that the neo-cons aren’t leaving to go to another country that is more to their liking, just like they suggested I do when I didn’t like Bush? I mean, America – love it or leave it, right? If they can’t support the way we are now, no matter what, why do they stay?

Perhaps because “you should leave” is empty rhetoric designed to make people angry and defensive, because both sides love America and want to make change from within, just like the Founders gave us the privilege to do?

@oratio To where? He’s Australian.

Now you’ve spoiled it – I could have had my return fare paid the next time I visit.

@DarkScribe Silly me. You could have traveled the world on American resentment.

@oratio “American resentment” will only get you so far. :-)

‘American Resentment’ will get you just about as far as any other substanceless fad.

@Noel_S_Leitmotiv: One of the fundamental premises that America was built upon is that is acceptable to criticize the government when it does something wrong. The right to peaceably assemble to petition the government for a redress of grievances is written into the First Amendment.

The foreign policy of the United States government had an enormous hand in creating the situation in the Middle East. And if you remain willfully ignorant and jingoistic, you will never understand the cause of the problem, and thus every solution you come up with for it will stink of racism, bigotry, and genocide.

I didn’t say word one about racism, bigotry or genocide. Dispelling the myths that the hatred of America is built on is good for all Americans, regardless of race, etc.

It is not a myth that a large part of the Islamic world’s hatred for America is based on the fact that we have been ineptly meddling in their affairs—carving up their borders, toppling governments that we can’t control in favor of dictators that we can, and treating them very callously indeed so that we can ensure the supply of cheap oil.

You aren’t dispelling myths so much as trying to replace them with myths you find more comfortable, because they allow you to ignore your own country’s partial responsibility for the situation. “They only hate us because we have so much more stuff than they do!” And you’re inviting people who disagree with you to pack up and leave—a profoundly un-American sentiment if ever there was one.

Wrong @cwilbur. Islamic states despise us because were so perverted as to allow our women to be educated, show their faces in public and, heaven forbid, keep their clitoris.

What radical Islamic country would have allowed Susan Sarandon to live after making ‘Thelma and Louise’?

You shredded your credibility at ‘oil’.

Oh, and ‘stuff’ like the worlds finest healthcare (despite our current administration’s best efforts).

Wrong @Noel_S_Leitmotiv. Oil has informed the foreign policy surrounding the Middle East since it was discovered that gasoline could fuel cars. If there were no oil in the Middle East, we would not care what the petty dictatorships and theocracies did; we would be content to let them fight it out among themselves, as we do for the most part in Africa. But because there’s oil there, something our economy depends on to continue its profligate consumerism, we have to meddle, meddle, meddle.

And the irony that would be delicious if it were not so tragic: both Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden, the great monsters of the 1990s and 2000s, were American creations in the 1970s and 1980s. We are, in large part, reaping what we have sown.

But I can totally understand how “they hate us for our freeeeeeedoooooom!” is a much more comforting fantasy to live in. It lets you abdicate any responsibility you might have in the situation, lets you make them out to be the Bad Guys while we are the Good Guys. More to the point, it justifies continued meddling in the Middle East, and the self-deluded jingoistic triumphalism that fuels the neoconservatives.

@cwilbur: you continue to blow up your credibilty with words like ‘jingoistic’ and ‘neocon’.

My ealier post about oil didn’t mean that I don’t understand the importance of oil in our choices as to what countries we should assist.

Our cozying to Hussein and bin Laden back in the day? You would have been howling about our cutting them down back then too.

Who are you to decide that my placing importance on freedom is the result of fantasy? Give up your freedom then we’ll talk.

Your pseudo open mindedness is protected by the likes of countries like America, it could be the downfall of said countries too.

@Noel_S_Leitmotiv Out of curiosity, how would you react to foreign troops occupying your country?

@benjainlevi: America is dealing with far worse than an occupying military force.

America is contending with a constant attack from within.

@Noel_S_Leitmotiv Yes, us communists are secretly trying to destroy America

How would you react to a foreign military occupying your country?

@benjaminlevi: That would be we communists.

I would defy It personally. I would hope that my government and military would do the same.

Why? Because I find it very ulikely that another force is going to be willing to free us from our oppression. (If you believe how other countries feel about Obama based on BBC World News and al Jazzera).

Swell job painting me as a fringe radical, keep up the good work.

@Noel_S_Leitmotiv: so if a foreign military were occupying your country, you think it would be appropriate to defy it personally. Now imagine that you grew up a citizen of Iraq, and found a foreign military occupying your country, and that you think that no other force is willing to free you from your oppression. Defying the US personally is exactly what terrorists are doing; they don’t have the resources to win in a toe-to-toe conflict, and they know it, and so they’re making the best available use of their resources.

You have all the pieces to understand why the Islamic world hates the West in general and the US in particular. But instead of putting them together, you comfort yourself with the inane lie, “they hate us because we’re free, they hate us because we have more material prosperity.” They don’t hate us because we’re free, or because we’re prosperous; they hate us because we’ve been meddling in their affairs for the past century, and because we’ve used them callously and manipulatively, paying a lot of lip service to freedom and human rights, but in the end using them most cynically to serve our own financial and material interests.

And you’re not a fringe radical; you’re an ordinary selfish conservative who has suppressed his compassion and his empathy, replacing them with a persecution complex, and who can’t figure out why everyone hates him, and finally concludes that it’s because he’s richer and better looking than they are, and they’re too jealous to stand it. The world would be a better place if those were fringe radical traits, but they’re unfortunately far too mainstream.

I knew you were going to pull the comparison shit so I said what I did about being freed from oppressors.

If a more freedom loving conservative state (hypothitical since one doesn’t exist) was considering freeing us from the oppresson represented by our current administration I’d at least consider it. This would mean swallowing my pride and worrying about the force’s exit strategy.

But you didn’t hear it, oh well..

@Noel_S_Leitmotiv I wasn’t trying to say you were a radical I was just being sarcastic.
cwilbur said pretty much what I was going to

No, I heard it, and I considered it irrelevant. It doesn’t matter whether you think the occupying force is oppressive; it matters whether the people under occupation think it’s oppressive. And given the excesses at Abu Ghraib and the White House-authorized use of torture, I don’t think that you can so casually dismiss the notion that the US occupation wasn’t oppressive.

@benjaminlevi: NP, just covering my bases.

@cwilbur: Ahh, the T word, your credibility is in ruins.

Just come out as a relativist regarding this issue and we can be done with it.

@Noel_S_Leitmotiv: If you have nothing to say in response, then the appropriate thing to do is to concede the argument or remain silent.

OOOH! we can agree do disagree! wretches

I don’t think “relativism” describes my position at all.

I think when you hit people, they hit back. I think when you force them to do what you think is right, they resent it. I think when people feel powerless and manipulated, they look for ways to lash out, and sometimes they find them. I think the right to self determination is vitally important, which means that people get to determine for themselves how they want to live.

And I think if a more powerful nation spent a century doing to the US what we’ve been doing to the countries in the Middle East for the past century, we’d react in much the same ways, for much the same reasons.

That’s not relativism; that’s doing unto others as I want done unto me.

“They hate you because you’re prettier than they are” is what a stupid parent tells a spoiled child. Generally, they don’t; they hate the child because the child is an arrogant snot who thinks his or her looks justify treating other children as inferior. It’s a comforting lie, and it allows the parent and the child to absolve themselves of all responsibility for contributing to the situation. It’s a crying shame that you can’t, or more likely won’t, see that.

@cwilbur said: “I think when you hit people, they hit back”.

This thinking requires that you know that our presence represents harm, not help.

This hasn’t been proven here.

“They hate you because you’re prettier than they are”, just WTF??

No, I don’t think it needs to be proven. I think it needs to be their perception. And again, I think that with Abu Ghraib and torture extreme interrogation techniques on our side of the balance sheet, it’s not quite so obvious even from here that our presence there represents help. And the opinion that matters isn’t yours or mine—it’s the potential and actual terrorists’.

(For someone who claims to hate political correctness, it’s odd that you shy away from calling a thing by its proper name when using a defanged euphemism makes it easier to support your point of view.)

“They hate you because you’re prettier than they are” is the same rationale as “they hate us because we’re more prosperous than they are” or “they hate us because we are free and they aren’t.” It allows you to absolve yourself of any responsibility—sure, we’re free! we’re prosperous! the hate is entirely because of their jealousy, because our motives and actions are unimpeachable! But in fact, our prosperity is one of the things that has enabled us to treat the Middle East so badly—they don’t hate us because of our prosperity directly, but they hate us because of what our prosperity has allowed us (and required us, in the name of cheap oil) to do to them.

I do despise political correctness. It would mandate that I can’t suggest things like we simply know better what’s good for the middle east.

Oh, I get what you were trying to say with “They hate you because you’re prettier than they are” That doesn’t make it relevant.

Cheap oil? you’ll never be able to get me to apologise for that.

You can suggest that we simply know better than the people who live there. Whether or not it’s true, the people who live there are likely to disagree with it; and if we try to impose our will on them, even if we do it for their own good because we know better than they do, they are likely to resist it. Since they can’t resist it with a standing army, they use their resources as efficiently as they can.

And actually, it’s not irrelevant, because it goes to the heart of the matter. It’s a criticism of your viewpoint, which seems to be that we’re rich, we’re powerful, we get to do whatever we like, and if anyone objects to it, it’s because they’re jealous of our riches and our power—not because we might be misusing our riches and our power.

And it’s delightfully ironic that someone who makes such a godawful fuss about freedom and how important it is is so blithe about dictating to other people what they must do, to the point of an armed invasion of their country if they disagree, and so baffled at their resistance, that he has to make up myths like “they hate us because we’re free and prosperous!” Or at least it would be delightful, if it weren’t such a common delusion.

“they hate us because we’re free and prosperous!”

I’ve seen nothing that disproves this.

@Noel_S_Leitmotiv Cheap oil? you’ll never be able to get me to apologise for that.

haha that made me smile… and shake my head a little too

It’s no problem Denver.

Cheap oil brought cwilbur his computer that he uses to spout anti American propaganda on.

@Noel_S_Leitmotiv If you see nothing to disprove that “they hate us because we’re free and prosperous!” would you claim that Middle-eastern US foreign policy in no way could provide these people to join these terrorists?

@benjaminlevi: I’m open to considering any possibility but I ultimately listen to my gut. Oh, and Occam’s Razor.

I am sure all these folks who hate America because it steals oil never use any petroleum products. Because that would be hypocritical wouldn’t it??? Sort of like being a part of the problem. And I am sure they are active in politics so that they can help to change these larcenous tactics the USA employs.

By the way, the damned yanks are now over here interfering and intruding by helping to find and offer aid to victims and clean up after the earthquakes, mud slides and tsunamis. How despicable can one country be!!!!

@rooeytoo Right, because if a country does bad things, it would be impossible for them to do good things too.

@Noel_S_Leitmotiv Irrational hatred is simpler to understand than cause and effect.

@Noel_S_Leitmotiv Swell job painting me as a fringe radical, keep up the good work.

I don’t see anyone painting you as a fringe anything (I can think of more appropriate words than radical) I see people drawing attention to your status.

I am curious, you are are so full of misinformation and wild theories – what standard of education did you reach? You appear to be a badly informed autodidact. You have shown no real knowledge of the political, economic or social status of those who you are so keen to attack.

The thing about cheap oil is that, in the end, we’re going to pay for it no matter what.

We didn’t pay for it with dollars, so we’re going to pay for it with lives.

I can’t tell you exactly why they (terrorists, Maybe their name says enough) hate us. I’m sure the reasons could fill a book.
What I can tell you is that as a soldier that served over in Iraq for 14 months and saw the violence and killing of innocent people, by their own people, that American military intervention is not only justified over there, but required. Although most people over there are peaceful, there are those that want nothing more then to kill as many of us as possible. That includes your children!!! Those people are locust that need to be delt with, and if we don’t do it I can assure you nobody else will. You may not agree with what George Bush did, but keep these things in mind. His actions, although not exactly up front and honest, had prevented anymore attacks on our soil. And don’t kid yourself into thinking that there weren’t any other attempts.
And if you can’t accept that, then stop calling yourself an American and pack your shit up and move to France!!!

“His actions, although not exactly up front and honest, had prevented anymore attacks on our soil.”

Kind of a subjective statement. I would add the words “in spite of” in front of that.

It’s also worth noting that it was on GW’s watch that the 9/11 attacks occurred.

@laureth- True. And also that his administration had been warned.

Yeah, he’d been pulling intelligence officers off of counter-terrorism watch and putting them on Vice Patrol in New Orleans. Doesn’t sound like much of a hero when you put it that way, eh?

I notice when I responded to this the first time the latest terrorist had stuffed the bomb up his butt, this time they were in his underpants.

Do you think this is a trend developing?