Let's start by looking at a laundry list of recent US gov't actions (and in some cases, inaction):
- We've killed more than 20,000 innocent civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan in recent years
- We continue to support an under-the-table conscript military force that is poorly paid and under equipped.
- We officially abandon or ignore the mental and physical ailments of our returning soldiers.
- We offer up privates and other low-level military personnel as scapegoats for the violent excesses and policies generated by our top military and civilian leaders, who never seem to suffer any consequences for the policies, whether written or not, being carried out by the grunts who in most cases are just following orders.
- We continue to use, despite a growing body of scientific research about the health risks, uranium-depleted munitions across the world. This poses health risks to our own troops and especially the citizens of those countries where we use those munitions.
- We justify, legally and ethically condone, and carry out the perpetual confinement without access to a legal system, and in some cases torture (or at least allow other less democratic gov'ts to torture) these so called foreign "detainees."
- We have unofficially declared ourselves "gods" of international policy; ignoring those that might inconvenience us a little economically or politically in the short-term (Kyoto, Int'l Criminal Court) and declare that we are the only ones capable of judging if premptive military action is justified or not.
- We allow our own citizens to be detained and held without access to the legal system, lawyers or even a list of charges against them, solely on the orders of a single individual (the Prez).
- We have given up the beginnings of some crucial civil liberties that once defined this great country (privacy, right to a jury trial, innocent until proven innocent, "thou shall not kill"!), all in the name of the nebulous idea of "national security". And mostly in the name of fear - does anyone really think we can prevent all terrorist attacks, crime or drug use without becoming a completely isolationist, fascist state or dictatorship?
- We supported the unsuccessful coup of a democratically elected gov't in Venezuela, and have obviously meddled in the democratic elections in Ukraine.
- We continue to support the Putin, Saudi and Pakistani gov'ts despite the fact that Putin is rolling back liberties and democratic freedoms faster than the media can report it and the Sauds and Pakistanis have been brutal dictators and major supporters of terrorism for decades.
- We have ignored all international arguments in the pressing issues of global warming and the destruction of the planet's intricately interlocked ecosystems, despite the fact that we are by far the largest generator of pollutants and the largest destroyers of natural lands (via our corporate web).
- We continue to support and think we can actually win this ridiculously termed "war on terror" (like suddently we think that prior to 9/11 we didn't fight terrorists?). Such a war will NEVER end. The more people we kill, the more join the causes against our perceived capitalist "empire." And we fail to look objectively at our own policies that are a root cause of much of the terrorism to begin with.
Now even if only half of the charges above can be proved (and given more time I'm sure I could quadruple the list above easily), can you understand how a growing percentage of the world outside (and inside) our borders view us as egotistical bullies and materialistic bad guys?
