Why They Hate Us

I continue to be disappointed by articles like this. They offer the same litany that they always have. Yet what it always seems to boil down to is that we're the wealthiest and most powerful. They hate us for who we are, more than for what we've done. If they hated everyone equally for their deeds, then surely the Muslims would all be killing each other right now, as the Afghans have been doing for the last twenty years.

They berate us for not giving them enough money, yet they berate us also for being involved in their affairs. They berate us for supporting "corrupt" regimes, yet they march in their streets, in support of the likes of Saddam, Khadafy, the Taliban, and Hafez Assad. They decry our "savagery" towards civilians (listen to OBL's latest tirade), yet perpetrate heinous crimes against those same civilians. They hate us for our "arrogance", yet they applaud bin Laden's messianic ambitions. I'm having a hard time finding sympathy for their purported grievances. If we were to withdraw from the Middle East entirely, as many among them are claiming that they'd like us to do, they'd hate us for abandoning them. 

I would therefore posit that their hatred is neither just nor rational. It would appear that after years of setting themselves back, they've simply grown frustrated at their plight - for which they themselves hold a disproportionately large responsibility, and have turned to murdering us because there's no longer enough of a thrill in killing each other, as they've been doing for centuries. 

I'll feel absolutely no remorse if we annihilate the likes of the Taliban and their militant supporters. The only regret I'll have is if we fall short of that goal. Then, when the militant element is destroyed (as horribly as possible, I would hope), we can then go into Afghanistan (and Iraq, sooner or later) and show their long-suffering people our best intentions and not just our worst. 

Of course, when that happens, the Afghans and Iraqis will begin to embrace our values and our culture, at which point the militants will feel that they have yet another grievance. 

They hate us because their hatred is the only thing holding them together. They attack us because attacking each other has become futile. Yet they need us more than they dare admit. Their duplicity is simply astounding. And when all is said and done and they've killed many of our soldiers and killed still more of each other, they’ll again be pleading for our assistance in undoing the damage that they have done to themselves, while they continue hating us for being the only ones that can offer that assistance. []

Just A Guy
3/18/02
5.2.05 Republished