American citizens should do some soul-searching to find out why they are being hated by most of the people in the world. The anti-American feeling is not a sentiment confined to the Muslim or Arab regions arising out of the blatantly unfair US policies that threaten the very existence of the people in Palestine, Afghanistan and Iraq. The anger against the US disregard for and violations of human rights has, obviously, been spreading to Europe as well.
According to a recent news item, the city police in Hamburg felt relieved when the American football team was defeated and thrown out of the World Cup matches. It was because the police needed to give special protection to the US team as they were the targets of people’s hatred.
There was a time when people in other parts of the world looked to the United States as the land of liberty, peace and opportunities.
But things began to change with the US becoming the world’s only superpower. The US high-handedness and intolerance became increasingly unbearable after the Sept. 11 terror attacks. President Bush’s unfair policies designed to please only the Zionists and extremist Christians contributed to a rise in American unpopularity making the world outside more and more insecure for the US leaders as well as ordinary Americans.
During his recent sojourn in Vienna, President George Bush was greeted with people protesting his visit to their country. An opinion poll in the Austrian capital revealed that the majority of the city population hated President Bush because they looked at him as a war criminal and violator of human rights. Some labeled him the world’s top terrorist.
Appalled by Bush’s scant respect for the principles of human rights, European leaders demanded the immediate closure of the Guantanamo prison where the soldiers murder prisoners and present them as suicides. The European leaders have also called for an end to the CIA’s transferring detainees to secret detention centers through European airports or airspace.
The father of a Saudi detainee, who allegedly killed himself at the Guantanamo prison, said his son’s body carried marks of severe torture. He was shocked to find his son’s vital organs missing.
Recently the US forces in Iraq arrested the mufti of Iraq, Sheikh Jamal Al-Dabban, member of the Association of Muslim Scholars. It is a wrong move that would only add to the enmity toward the US and its people.
The US dismissal of the Israeli incursions in Gaza as a simple maneuver in self-defense has encouraged Israel to convert the region into a virtual prison for the millions of Palestinian civilians.
While the US has been callous to the huge humanitarian catastrophe being unveiled in Gaza due to the Israeli military action, the rest of the world has been condemning the Israeli violations. Carried away by the Israeli lobbying, the US has labeled Palestinian people’s struggle for liberation as terrorism.
The US, unfortunately, believes in double standard. It says nobody has the right to criticize Israel’s missile and nuclear projects. In the same breath US says North Korea has no right to manufacture nuclear weapons.
The US Congress believes it has the power to interfere in the internal affairs of any country in the world. It issues orders to punish Syria and asks European countries to stop aid to Palestinians because they elected a government using democratic means.
The US administration’s violations of rights are obviously not confined to the Palestinians and other less powerful countries. According to recent newspaper reports, the US administration has been violating the basic rights of its own citizens over the past several years. The supporters of Bush in the Congress are demanding legal action against the New York Times because it exposed the government’s spying on people’s private accounts. Does it mean that sounding an alarm against the loss of people’s basic rights is a crime?
The US double standard in its policies aims at serving various political and economic groups in the country. The real power in the country is, apparently, not with the president who is just a tool in the hands of mighty economic powers. The people have the responsibility to make the administration and the Congress behave with accountability. It is the people who should find out the reason why the world hates the US. It should be done without any fear of the Zionist lobbyists and Christian fundamentalists. Then only the American citizens will be able to move freely and safely anywhere in the world.
