United States blind to its own faults
Many people believe that the beauty of the US political system is its ability to correct itself. Things going astray will ultimately be put right they say.
Not really.
Looking back over the past decade, it is clear that if there ever was such a mechanism it is no longer working and there has been an absence of much needed self-criticism.
This was brought into sharp focus when protests against the United States erupted in Egypt and Libya last week, and the US Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens was killed. Anti-US demonstrations and riots have now spread across the Muslim world, triggered largely by the anti-Islam movie, Innocence of Muslims.
In the US, the blame has been put on a small group of Islamic extremists in the Middle East and those foreign governments which the US claims have not reacted forcefully to the situation.
US government officials, pundits and even the media keep repeating the same old mantra that the majority of the people in the Middle East and the Islamic world welcome Americans. The US media has frequently cited Christopher Stevens' words that "Americans, French and British are enjoying unusual popularity".
Such soothing words are nice, yet a survey by the Pew Global Attitudes Project found that there was a great deal of anger at US policies and Americans in many Muslim nations.
While this may come as a shock to most Americans, it explains why there have been such strong and widespread anti-US protests since last week.
The US needs to take a good hard look at its foreign policy if it is to change such attitudes. For example, the US has long been seen in the Arab world as leaning toward Israel in the Mideast peace process.
Then there is the decade-long war on terror. Waged largely in the two Muslim nations of Iraq and Afghanistan, the war has alienated the Muslim world. On the contrary, a significant number of people in these places view al-Qaida and its ilk favorably. Many even believe that suicide attacks against Americans and other Westerners are justifiable.
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