Why they hate us

Twenty-three (interesting number for all you Discordians out there) minutes of George W. Bush was about all I could stand in one week, so I opted out of watching his 60 Minutes interview last night, choosing instead to read the transcript.

This part just leapt off the screen:

PELLEY: Do you think you owe the Iraqi people an apology for not doing a better job?

BUSH: That we didn't do a better job or they didn't do a better job?

PELLEY: Well, that the United States did not do a better job in providing security after the invasion.

BUSH: Not at all. I am proud of the efforts we did. We liberated that country from a tyrant. I think the Iraqi people owe the American people a huge debt of gratitude, and I believe most Iraqis express that. I mean, the people understand that we've endured great sacrifice to help them. That's the problem here in America. They wonder whether or not there is a gratitude level that's significant enough in Iraq.

Might I remind the Crawford Caligula that the Iraqis didn't ASK us to invade their country? They didn't ASK us to depose Saddam Hussein. And they sure as hell didn't ask us to turn their country into an anarchic, dangerous deathtrap. That this president invaded Iraq for his own personal reasons and now expects the Iraqis who live in a ruined country with no electricity, very little potable water, and few ways to earn a living, to be GRATEFUL is not just typical of this president's narcissism, in which he does what HE thinks is right for them without consulting them, and then expects them to appreciate his efforts, but is typical of the way the U.S. has treated the world for a generation. We do what's in our interest -- like supporting Saddam Hussein against the Iranians in the 1980's, then calling him a tyrant akin to Hitler; or creating the Afghani mujahadeen to fight the Soviets and laying the foundation for the creation of al-Qaeda; or helping to deposing Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh in the 1950's when he wanted to nationalize the Iranian oil industry instead of turning it over to Western interests, which laid the foundation for the Iran crisis of 1979. We do what we want and then expect those hurt by our short-term thinking to be grateful.

And he wonders why they hate us? No matter what Dinesh D'Souza thinks, they don't hate us because we allow women outside the house, or because of birth control or homosexuality or Michael Moore's weight. They hate us because we have this idea that everything in the world is ours by some kind of divine right -- this "What is our oil doing under their sand" mentality that has caused us to make one boneheaded decision in the Middle East after another for as long as I've been alive.

And this nimrod has the nerve to ask the Iraqis to be GRATEFUL?