Do all that many of them really hate us all that much?

In today's American Spectator online Christopher Orlet comments on a piece written by Julie E Sweig in last week's LA Times. Sweig was doing one of those "why they hate us" screeds that the left are so fond of. You know, the ones where they assume that the entire rest of the world hates the US for the same reason that the American left hates the US.

After cutting her apart for a bit he gets down to the real issue of how the world really feels about the US:

How does the rest of the world genuinely feel about the U.S.? Despite a historical suspicion of gringos, polls consistently show that Latin America is overwhelmingly pro-U.S., and that was surveying the few Latin Americans that have yet to emigrate here. Australia and Canada are pro-U.S., as is much of Asia (even Muslim Indonesia), sub-Saharan Africa, Israel and all of Eastern Europe. Leaving aside Russia and China, which remain on the fence, about 80 percent of the world "likes" us. Speaking of Russia and China, how many Russians or Chinamen do you suppose would pass up an immigrant visa to the U.S.? How about none?

So who are "they" that "hate" us so badly? Granted a great many Arabs, Turks and Persians despise the infidel America. Even without the war in Iraq Arabs would abhor the U.S. for its support of Israel. (As an indication of how clueless Ms. Sweig is, she completely disregards our relationship with Israel as a cause of anti-Americanism.) France, Belgium, Germany, Spain, and the Netherlands don't exactly hate the U.S. Many of them, however, do hate free market capitalism, of which America is the standard bearer. But mostly their enmity is colored green with envy and resentment. Even Ms. Sweig admits this. "Power generates resentment," she writes. If Mongolia were the world's lone superpower Western Europeans would hate the Mongolians.

Should Americans be overly concerned about negative Muslim attitudes toward the U.S.? Unless we're willing to toss Israel over the side Muslims will continue to hate America regardless of what we do. Meanwhile Old Europe should look to its own increasingly troubled front yard: its growing discontent among poor and fanatical Muslims, its increasing anti-Semitism, aging population and a soon-to-be bankrupt social security system, to say nothing of ts over-reliance on U.S. security.

Useless idiots like Michael Moore and Julia Sweig may continue to apologize to those who hate America if they like. But, as the anti-war set likes to say, not in my name.

This is about what I had thought. Most people are rational.