Well i dont think a lot of people here hate Americans. Its just the policy thing thats effecting other countries in a bad way, and i wouldnt want to go into it now :exhausted
I agree that American foreign policy needs to change. But let us not mistakenly think of International Corporations as products of American government, they are just business trying to make a dollar, a yen, a franc, a mark, or whatever other currency they can bank. They may appear "American", but they are not they are simply capitalists and that is all they are. So, please don't confuse "American" business with American government; they are two different things and the first often takes advantage of and uses the second.
As to some of the policies that are the product of the government. Remember that the policies of our government are not forever. What one administration did another may chose to reverse. The last election was a vote by the American people for reversals in some areas and not in others. One of the things that it seesm to me that neither the world nor the American people want is for the USA to play big brother to the entire world. Now the reason that we do is because it wasn't that long ago when that is exactly what the world wanted, and not so enthusiastically we agreed, not because we wanted to but because we felt that it might be our duty seeing as how fortunate we understood that we were. It didn't always go well, and we made some mistakes along the way. Still, I think that over all we've done more good than harm.
We stopped Hitler and Japanese aggression in the middle of the last century, we led the world in the development of a middle class in most nations, overcame diseases like polio, kept starving countries alive, responded to world disasters, and bankrolled other countries to assist in building their own infrastructure.
I'm sorry we also invented and shared with people the TV, telephone and the movie projector leading the moral decline of many cultures -- but really I want to blame the Japanese for making these things so cheap that everyone can afford one. ;D
Seriously, we are far from perfect. Even in families big brothers have to let their smaller siblings grow-up and lead their own lives. We've gotten so enmeshed in some places that we have gone, that even though we may have arrived with the best of intentiones (and I know not all of the places we have gone have been with such good intent), what we are doing today is often not to anyone's benefit but some corporate greed. Still, I see what happens when we attempt to leave. We've created dependence and many places fail to stand when we pull out to hastily. So, leaving is a lot simpler in principle than it is in practice. Iraq would be a good case in point. No one wants us there. Not Americans, not Iraqis, not even our own military. But leaving seems to make things worse not better.
We are cursed today, and then tomorrow someone will be in need again and they will say, "You Americans, you are so well off, you should do something to help those who are less fortunate and don't have the wealth, or freedoms, or opportunities, or medical care, or education, or _______________ that you do. And because these thing are complicated and take both time and investment, 10 years from now we will still be there and it will again be lifted up that we are too involved in other people's countries.
So, we are cursed by people if we stay and cursed by people if we go. Either way we are cursed, and that is what it seems to mean to be an American in our world today.
