Why Do They Hate Us?
A good article in the Washington Post exploring some of the reasons for the dislike of the US government's actions, even while most people admire American values. The entire story is worth reading, but I'll excerpt one paragraph near the end.
The challenge that the United States faces today boils down to a choice. It can insist on its primacy as a superpower, or it can accept the universality of its values. If it chooses the former, it will heighten the resentment of foreigners and increase the likelihood of visiting disaster upon distant populations -- and vice versa. If it chooses the latter, it will discover something it appears to have forgotten: that the world is full of potential allies.
That the US isn't hated for its freedoms but for its actions has been said repeatedly, but it bears repeating since too many still haven't got the message. The freedoms the US enjoys are what makes it the desired home of so many. If the US government were to treat those freedoms as truly universal and not something that ends at its borders, (and these days, one can't be certain they extend that far anymore), then a lot of the trouble and grief the US has suffered these last few years could have been avoided.
Also, as the article notes, these kinds of actions didn't start with the current administration; they've been ongoing for some time. The current administration has merely taken them to new heights and carried them out with unprecedented arrogance. Making a bad situation worse, if you will.
