Why Do They Hate Us?

Transfered from old site

So- Why Do They Hate Us? Dan Rather told us that the people of the Middle East are "jealous." George W. Bush tells us they hate the fact that in America people are "able to realize their dreams regardless of who they are." Certainly possible.  
 
That's how the government and its shill media answer the "Why Do They Hate Us?" question for us, the simple-minded citizens. Ok, fine. How do the US intelligence agencies answer that same question, when they are talking behind closed doors?  
 
In 1974, Ralph Nader authored the Freedom of Information Act, which requires the US Government to make public all declassified documents. All you have to do is look, and you'll know what your government is really up to.  
 
Let's look at some of the REAL history of US involvement in that area. Rewind to 1958.  
 
In 1958, Eisenhower asked his National Security Council (now run by former Chevron executive Condoleeza Rice) the same question that everyone has- rightly- been asking since September 11. Namely: "Why Do They Hate Us?" He told his intelligence advisors that there seemed to be a "Campaign of hatred" against the US in the Middle East, and wanted to know why. In no uncertain terms- in National Security Council Memorandum 5801/1, "Statement By The National Security Council Of Long-Range U.S. Policy Toward The Near East," January 24, 1958- they told him why.  
 
To paraphrase: The Arab poor feel that the US supports dictators who trade oil for US weapons. They believe that the US stifles Democracy to maintain access to the region's oil (A representative quote: "In the eyes of the majority of Arabs the United States appears to be opposed to the realization of the goals of Arab nationalism. They believe that the United States is seeking to protect its interest in Near East oil by supporting the status quo and opposing political or economic progress. . ."). In 1958 they felt that the "Cold War" was merely a pretext for maintaining the status quo.  
 
Furthermore, the report states that the reason we have so much trouble countering these perceptions is because they are all basically true. We DO prop up dictators all throughout the Middle East so we can take the oil. We DID use the "Cold War" as a pretext for imperialism.  
 
Even today, we hear about how we are "Losing The Propaganda War." Even today, we are "Losing The Propaganda War" because so much of what our enemies say is simply true. Those policies have not changed, over the decades and across both parties. These are not the words of an "Anti-American Radical" or a "Blame America First Liberal," they are the words of the US Government's own intelligence community. They don't "Hate our freedom," they hate the fact that we prevent theirs.  
 
Even after making the "Why They Hate Us" question crystal-clear, in 1963 the CIA sponsored a (failed) coup to overthrow Iraq's government and install Saddam's Ba'ath Party. According to the minutes of a meeting with his advisors, Eisenhower interjected "vociferously" at the suggestion that there was a communist threat. Despite his vocal objection to the suggestion that the Soviets were involved, that's exactly what they told us, how our government justified the coup to the citizens who just wouldn't understand the real reason.  
 
Saddam didn't become vice-president until 1974, then president in 1979. Significantly, this is the same year the Iranians overthrew our puppet dictator, the Shah- who was installed after we overthrew their Democratically Elected government in 1953. That government had intended to nationalize their resources, to take the oil out of the hands of Western corporations.  
 
These are all textbook examples of "Why They Hate Us," according to US intelligence agencies.  
 
I bring this up not to needlessly criticize the actions of our past, but to put this upcoming war into historical perspective.  
 
We are about to go to war to overthrow Saddam and install yet another, more compliant, dictator.