The Clipboard: Why do 'they' hate 'us'?

From an article¹:

Why do they hate us? Maybe it would be more appropriate to ask, "Why shouldn't they hate us?" We have bombed their homes and deposed their rulers only to replace those rulers with banana republics that leave the people in worse conditions than they had known before. Our President declares that you are either with him or against him and if you stand against him you will die. Too bad that you want no part of the fight that is brewing, you are the ones that will be forever remembered as "collateral damage."

Why do they hate us? Why indeed? (link)

A libertarian perspective.

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Complete text of the article, taken from Why do 'they' hate 'us'?, by R. Lee Wrights

Almost one year ago Americans were left dumbfounded as they watched two of the tallest structures on the face of the planet crumble into a smoking mountain of rubble, the result of the most devastating terrorist attack ever concocted by man. It was almost impossible to believe that such a heinous act of mass murder and devastating destruction could happen in the greatest nation on the globe. As the shock of the tragedy began to wear off people immediately began asking the inevitable question, "What could possibly motivate supposed religious men to take so many innocent lives?" It is a question I have heard all my life; and even today, we are still wrestling with the quandary of, "Why do 'they' hate 'us'?" Why indeed?

As always, the talking heads and political pundits "gave" us "the" answer hand-crafted and handed down from the slickest spin doctors on Capitol Hill. Third-world countries hate us because we are free. That's right, pure and simple we are hated by people that never even laid eyes on us because of our precious birthright - Freedom. So, in actuality they do not really hate us, but rather, they hate our way of life.

We are told they hate us because our women do not wear veils and our children stop by McDonald's on their way home from school. We are reviled because we drive SUV's filled with petroleum from their oil fields purchased with American dollars that feed their countries' economies. They say we are held in contempt because our citizens are free to choose the religion they wish to practice; and, we are despised because Americans are free to ignore God altogether if they so choose. We are told they want us all dead because we are at liberty to speak our minds.

What's worse? Americans believe this government propaganda.

Now I am not going to try and say that there are not people in this world that hate our freedom. In fact, I know there are folks that hate our freedom and I don't have to leave my hometown to see them. After all, I have attended my share of board of aldermen, county commissioner, and school board meetings and I have yet to find a deficiency of people seeking to usurp freedom in any of them. But I digress.

Obviously there are some people in the world that hate us because of our freedom, but I believe the number is relatively small. Most people in the world today want to be free. They do not hate Lady Liberty. They long to embrace her and know the passionate joy she bestows in the form of pure, unabridged freedom. Indeed, most people envy our freedom as is reflected in the number of illegal aliens estimated to inhabit the United States of America. No, most of the people in the world do not hate "us" because we are free, if they even hate us at all.

What people do hate, and this is a common trait among all nationalities, is government intrusion. They hate the red tape that feeds a bloated bureaucracy no matter what language in which the paperwork is rendered. People all over the world hate being told what to do by overbearing, nursemaid politicians promising to improve their lives. The bigger the government, the more there is to despise. And the only thing people hate worse than perceived intrusions by their own government, are actual intrusions from a foreign government. I mean, is there anything more aggravating than a nosy neighbor that acts like your Mother?

Remember, when the chatting noggins are saying they hate us, the 'they' is usually a relatively small group of individuals and the 'us' is really 'US' which means their hatred is well defined within the Beltway. Most people in foreign countries do not hate you, they hate your government because the President and Congress, whichever flavor is in season this year, cannot keep their collective nose out of everybody else's business. American politicians for decades have deluded themselves into believing that not only do they know what is best for you and I; but moreover, they are convinced they know what is best for the rest of the world as well.

If government intrusion pisses you off then you know why they hate us, and it is not because of our freedom. It is because our government refuses to let others be free. By trying to impose our values upon unknown people, we deprive those same people of the freedom of choice. You cannot have freedom without choice. Values are subjective and cannot be imposed upon any man, for each must acquire his values from the experience of exercising his own free will. One man's sin may be another's salvation. But the one thing that all men will rebel against is anyone telling him/her that they can or cannot do something. We ALL want to be free to make our own decisions and our own choices absent meddling by anyone or any agency regardless of the number of letters on their black baseball caps.

Why do they hate us? Maybe it would be more appropriate to ask, "Why shouldn't they hate us?" We have bombed their homes and deposed their rulers only to replace those rulers with banana republics that leave the people in worse conditions than they had known before. Our President declares that you are either with him or against him and if you stand against him you will die. Too bad that you want no part of the fight that is brewing, you are the ones that will be forever remembered as "collateral damage."

Why do they hate us? Why indeed?

reference=http://www.libertyforall.net/2002/archive/august04/hate.html