More on why some people hate America

More on “why they hate us.”

On Monday I posted an introduction and a link to an in-depth look at just one of the 14 regime-changes the USA has engineered in the last 110 years -- Iran in 1953. A fair reading of that particular maneuver would have most impartial readers understanding why some embittered Iranians have been plotting against the interests of America ever since. They might say America was right or wrong, but they understand.

Today I want to provide more background on why embattled Third-World countries sometimes distrust American presidents’ motives when they say we are trying to promote democracy and stability by sending in the troops.

Please note, this post is about why "some people" hate us. It’s not to say America has always been wrong in using its military, or that given foreign policies are so simplistic that there ever was one single reason why a president did anything.

Of course, it’s always complicated. But if you don’t know some of this history, it’s high time you did. It seems some young people today have no grasp of history before 9/11. It's easy to document why there are heartfelt resentments in some other countries, feelings that stem from regime-changes imposed on them by American presidents in bygone days.

For the The Texas Observer, Robert Sherrill reviews Stephen Kinzer’s new book, “Overthrow: America’s Century of Regime Change From Hawaii to Iraq.”

“George Bush and Dick Cheney may get your vote as the worst, the dumbest, the most venal, and the most dangerous bunglers in foreign affairs in U.S. history. But this book will show you that their equals have appeared before.

“Overthrow is an infuriating recitation of our government’s military bullying over the past 110 years --a century of interventions around the world that resulted in the overthrow of 14 governments -- in Hawaii, Cuba, the Philippines, Puerto Rico, Vietnam, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Honduras, Panama, Chile, Iran, Grenada, Afghanistan, and … Iraq.

“Stephen Kinzer, who spent years on various front lines for The New York Times, calls these regime changes “catastrophic victories,” but of course some were more catastrophic than others. Most of these coups were triggered by foreign combatants and then taken over and finished by us. But four of them, in many ways the worst of the lot, were all our own, from conspiracy to conclusion. American agents engaged in complex, well-financed campaigns to bring down the governments of Iran, Guatemala, South Vietnam, and Chile. None would have fallen -- certainly not in the same way or at the same time -- if Washington had not acted as it did...”

So, President George Bush is not the first American president to think toppling regimes abroad was in America's best interest. And, he knows it. He also knows all to well why "they" hate us, in spite of how he shrugs.