Jack The Yankee Hater

I started this article by going to the Internet and typing into a popular search engine the phrase: “why do they hate America”. I got over a million hits. Now I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to be able to read all of them, but I was equally sure that most of them would simply be rants from one side or another or that the writers would simply *censored*foot around the question. I have referenced some of them below but the answer is really quite simple … no one likes a bully. Let me give you a personal example. A few years ago I was in a Caribbean country and fell into conversation with local people about some devastated buildings. On questioning, I learned this was residue from 1989’s Hurricane Hugo. As the conversation progressed, someone commented that when horrendous events like these happen, poorer countries know they can count on help from other nations and they singled out the U.S. and Canada as being particularly generous. But, as they saw it, there was a big difference. The U.S. would show up pretty quickly and simply take over, Canada would show up just as fast and ask how we could help. From the perspective of these islanders, the difference in attitude and approach was palpable and significant … even when trying to be helpful and charitable, America behaves like a bully. The U.S. imposes its will everywhere, even here in Canada. In what is probably America’s most steadfast and closest ally, we know, or at least believe, that much of what we do we are only able to do because America has not forced us to stop. We have a social safety net that some of the more radical American politicians have called “communist”, and many of us generally believe it isn’t a strong enough net; we have always openly traded with and done a lot of business in Cuba; we never shunned the USSR or any of the communist bloc countries, believing rather that open dialogue with them was the better way to achieve peaceful coexistence. We didn’t have to change their minds, we just had to get along with them. Several of our Prime Ministers have, over the years, been directly and publicly threatened by American Presidents for failing to tote the American party line and the standing assumption throughout my whole life is that America will eventually just subsume us. Geographically, we are the second largest nation on the planet and we have vast stores of resources, at least two of which America needs desperately: oil and water. ‘Manifest Destiny’ has always made America believe it should really rule the whole of North America and that Canada and Mexico should simply cease to exist. So while we in Canada view America with some trepidation and try to be careful in our dealings with it, what of other countries? Let me share a bit of the stuff I found on the Internet. An editorial piece that appeared in Pravda said: “It is an open secret that anti-American attitudes are gaining steam all over the world. They are quite evidently caused by Washington’s pushy foreign policy.” It goes on to say: “The rest of the world dislikes the fact that the USA enjoys the status of the world’s sole superpower and makes decisions contradicting the norms of international law. Even the opinions of the (sic) America’s allies are often ignored … the White House and the U.S. State Department criticize domestic policies of other countries and become angry when the same is done towards the USA.” An unattributed article entitled “Why the World Hates America”, dated August 29/02 and appearing on a website called “What Really Happened” begins: “Maybe it’s because America, despite lovely speeches about bringing freedom and democracy to the world, has a record of backing some of the worst dictators to be found.” You know the history: Saddam was a friend and then he wasn’t; Noriega was a friend and then he wasn’t; Pinochet was a friend and then he wasn’t. Nobody misses the point that most of America’s foreign policy has been implemented to ensure that some business guy in America makes a buck and when the despot of the day no longer has value, he is discarded to become the enemy of the week. An article appearing in the September 27, 2001 edition of the Christian Science Monitor stated that “…weapons are very much the visible face of American policy …”. It notes “the prevailing mood … of anger and suspicion toward the United States springs from a deeply rooted perception that the US has been a fickle friend.” They quote a Muslim cleric as saying: “American foreign policy has invited everybody, actually, to try to humiliate America, and to give it a bloody nose”. Most of the world sees the U.S. attacking the behaviour of one country while supporting precisely the same behaviour elsewhere. And we all know it has to do with the economic interest of some American company rather than justice or democracy or freedom. Nobody is fooled by the rhetorical drivel spouted by America’s leaders. An article written for the Burlington (Vermont) Free Press on September 16, 2001 quoted an Arabic leader saying: “What’s happening in America is a natural punishment for its continuous aggression on the weakest people in the world” and concluded with remarks from a retired general and former Supreme Allied Commander of NATO (George Joulwon): “I spent 22 years of my career living outside of this country, so I see it maybe clearer than most. Our way of life doesn’t exist in most parts of the world, and that fosters admiration, and it fosters resentment and anger.” Even in the archly conservative Capitalism Magazine, an article by David Harsanyi noted that non-Americans constantly complain that America never considers the views of the rest of world, only what will line the pockets of Americans. [Let me be clear, that’s not the way Harsanyi words it, but it is the inference for any perceptive reader.] The recent assault upon Iraq and its post-war fumbling isn’t going to make America’s rehabilitation any easier. Even those few souls who thought that invading Iraq could be justified are having second thoughts now that the lies that incited it all are becoming clear. Only the most naïve will continue to believe that the U.S. ever really thought Saddam had weapons of mass destruction. The evidence is pretty overwhelming that they knew full well he had nothing. This has turned out to be just another example for the world to see America being a rapacious bully and to make the hatred burn even more intensely. Is there a touch of jealousy in all of this? Of course there is. What nation wouldn’t like to have the wealth of the United States, the opportunities, the abundance of everything to satisfy all desires both subtle and gross? But there is also overwhelming dislike of the two-faced support of one dictator or another if a buck is to be made, the assistance that always comes with an unbearable price tag, the way the rest of the world is used as a place for the US to settle scores and to deflect the American public from domestic political scandals. But most of all, the rest of the world simply does not liked to be pushed around. Most recognize the U.S. as a great state and admire much of what has been achieved. And they are grateful for assistance and guidance. What they can’t stand is America dictating to other nations, displacing their leaders at will, whether duly elected or not, and generally offering the world that the US can be all things to all people, if only they will bow low enough. And in a tip of the hat to Sesame Street, an excellent American export, too many people around the world go to sleep thinking: this nightmare is brought to you by the letters U, S, and A. So, is Layton anti-American? I don’t know; but if he is, he is certainly not alone and I for one would find it hard to consider that a character flaw. ---- Paul Harris is self-employed as a consultant providing businesses with the tools and expertise to reintegrate their sick or injured employees into the workplace. Canadian businesses can reach him at paul@working-solutions. He has traveled extensively in what is usually known as "the Third World" and has an abiding interest in history, social justice, morality and, well, just about everything. Paul is also a freelance writer and can be reached at paul@escritoire.ca. He lives in Canada.