Anti-Americanism abroad

["Kessaissia, Mazine" <mazine.kessaissia@mail.utexas.edu>]

At the recent international film festival in Venice, it was reported that the 
longest applause was for British filmmaker Ken Loach's segment, which features 
an exiled Chilean living in Britain who writes a letter to the families of the 
September 11 victims. He tells them that in Chile on September 11, 1973, a US-
supported coup d'etat ushered in an era of torture and death.

And Nelson Mandela, one of the world's most respected statesmen, told Newsweek 
that "the attitude of the United States of America is a threat to world peace."

While there is a consistent media focus on anti-Americanism in the Arab and 
Islamic worlds, it is clear that such sentiments are rooted throughout the 
world. The US State Department recently sponsored a two-day conference about 
this phenomenon and invited experts to explain why there is such hatred in so 
many parts of the world. For those of us who have traveled abroad and/or who 
read international press reports, the announcement was somewhat amusing as it 
is easy to figure out why there is such hatred: US foreign policy.

Some like to say that the events of September 11 were about jealousies of our 
liberties. But if freedom was the issue, then why aren't Holland, Switzerland 
or Canada – arguably one of the freest nations on earth - the target of 
terrorist attacks?

In the Middle East, you have given Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, 
the 'Butcher of Beirut,' unqualified support to do as he wishes to the 
Palestinian people. Israel has the fourth most powerful army in the world and 
the Palestinians have no army, yet we expect the Palestinians to stop the 
violence despite home demolitions, unprecedented poverty, land confiscation, 
assassinations, expulsions and denial of basic human rights.

Elsewhere in the Arab world, there is an understanding that the brutal regimes 
remain out of US support. While democracy and development flourish throughout 
the Third World, the Arab world is stuck in a time warp, largely due to the 
policies of US-supported regimes. Opposition figures and intellectuals are 
often jailed to prevent any viable opposition from forming. Our "allies" are 
among them.

You say you want to fight terrorism, but why the hell don't you fight 
terrorists in countries such as Algeria (over 100,000 killed within ten yars) 
or Egypt, or Saudi Arabia, or Syria or Israel.

You say we want democracy in the Arab world, but couldn't a democratic 
majority opt to use oil as a weapon for national gains? And couldn't that mean 
jacked-up prices at the pump? Or does this potential scenario scares you into 
supporting a status-quo that you claim to hate so much? When one thinks about 
it, oil is really the only interest you have in the Arab world, so wouldn't it 
be better to have control over the current Arab leaderships?

Your government has supported Saddam Hussein (against Iran), Osama Bin Laden 
(against Russia), Pol Pot, Augusto Pinochet and death squads in Central 
America. You have hindered investigations in Haiti by refusing to return 
materials seized from the Haitian military in September 1994 and failing to 
disclose documents detailing atrocities. You have refused to arrest and hand 
over the law a terrorsit cell of the GIA to the Algerian government that 
clearly identified them as permanent resident in your country...why? because 
terrorism did not hit your own people so why the hell do you care about these 
hunders of thousands algerians killed by Al-Qaeda hands. You also hindered the 
investigations in Rwanda by refusing to expose those who were providing arms 
to the killers. You even refused to call genocide "genocide."

Americans, you are generous and loving...when you know what is going on. You 
abhor human rights violations and evil leaders. You usually root for the 
underdog in conflicts. In a nutshell, morality tends to be your compass.

Clearly, there is no justification for the evils that awaited the victims of 
September 11, but while banners read "we will not forget" at so many 
ceremonies and public events, you must keep in mind that others are not 
forgetting their own "September 11s" either to which you turn a blind eye...on 
purpose.