[Jon]

There are 3 main factors, as I see it, which contribute to the hostility towards Americans. Firstly these is the perception is that Americans as a whole are unwilling to look outside their country, learn about and accept other cutlers or take any interest in foreign affairs. (Evidence often cited to back this is up includes low passport ownership rates, low levels of international reporting in your media) Secondly, there is the your governments foreign policy, including a gross disregard for international treaties (international criminal court, Kyoto, missile test ban treaties etc), coupled with a warmongering approach that often defies logic, a lack of consistency and a tendency to fund vicious dictators and/ or terrorists (the US government has in the past funded both Saddam Hussian, and Osaka Bin Laden). Now, no government is perfect, most if not all practice hypocrisy, but non act with the arrogance that the USA tends to. Which brings me to my third point. Americans may perceive hostility everywhere because they don’t really expect it. You are taught that you have a fine, democratic system of government, which is a force for good in the world and that every nation should strive to be more like you. You don’t expect people to be hostile and so when they are, the shock makes the criticism seem even worse. The rest of the world does not hate Americans (although there are obviously some fanatics out there) and even if there was mass hatred (rather that more well founded criticism) of America, this is much more to do with foreign policy than attributes of individual Americans. Lets face it where on the brink of world war three here because George Bush needs a handy focus for his ‘war against terror’, if we are about to be dragged into a pointless and misguided war just to win a few votes/ secure some lucrative oil/ natural gas deals, I think that those of us who don’t have US citizenship have the right to be mildly miffed at the very least. Oh and in short, Americans aren’t really ‘that evil’, your government just tends to make some very unpopular decisions on the international stage.

User Detail :  

Name : Jon, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Atheist, Age : 22, City : London, State : NA, Country : United Kingdom, Occupation : Civil Servant, Education level : 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, 

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