A picture is worth 1,000 words

The Taliban is a creation of the US in its war against communism, driving the Soviet Union out of Afghanistan. The quality of life for women improved when the Soviet Union prevailed. One of the leaders of that drive against the Soviet Union was Osama bin Laden, a CIA agent. Thus, the answer to why the US is hated is the same as the answer as to why the Taliban is hated: US imperalism promotes anti-workingclass, anti-women, anti-culture (destroying Buddhist statutes, etc.), murderous thugs known as the Taliban so as to make possible the profits of the imperialists. The current pending invasion of Afghanistan by the US will make possible Unocal's long-desired oil pipeline from the Caspian Sea to the Indian Ocean through Afghanistan. The name of the game is always money, in particular profits, in a capitalist society. We face a choice around the world: barbarism or socialism.

nessie is correct.

Not that the United States is perfect either, but be real now; Sure, we backed the Taliban against the Russians but a comparison between the US government and the Taliban is ludicrous. That's the equivalent of an American black man bitterly complaining that brothers are still slaves and not a motherfuckin' thing has changed.

(All militant American negroes are invited to participate in this thread. Flame away homies.)

Sorry if I got off topic.

The excuse for the blood for oil war in Afghanistan is another Reichstag Fire, namely the plane crashes-bombings of 9/11/01. Just as Nero burned Rome and blamed the Christians to consolidate his power, the Nazis burned their congressional building, the Reichstag and blamed the Communists to consolidate their power, so too did the CIA most likely perpetrate these latest horrors, very similar to the horrors they perpetrate all around the world. The scale seems larger, but the USA is guilty of many horrors that are much larger, from the genocide of Native Americans, enslavement of Africans, the racist and unnecessary nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Korean War that slaughtered 3 million Koreans, the Vietnam War that slaughtered about the same number of Vietnamese, as well as many others, the murder of the people of El Salvador, Nicaragua, Chile, Haiti and many other countries over the centuries for the benefit of the profits of the corporations, the murder by war and sanctions of 1.5 million Iraqis, the murder of the various peoples of Yugoslavia, and much more, as any student of history knows. The extraordinary imprisonment in the prison/concentration camp system of the Latino and black workingclass under the guise of the phony war on drugs is certainly genocide. The US press is filled with stories of advanced warnings and Willie Brown of San Francisco had a phone call 8 hours before the 9/11/01 events wherein he was told that there would be problems at the airports. Any advance notice means that this was an inside job.

As to the current backwardness of the USA versus the current backwardness of its offspring, the Taliban, this Neanderthal Bush, Jr. with his 7-year-old mentality, thinks he is on a Christian Crusade in Afghanistan, is leading the effort to eliminate our right to abortion, is actively promoting more prisons and less civil liberties, is a staunch promoter of what no longer exists in Europe, namely the death penalty as it is seen as barbaric among other things, has total contempt for education and only cares to enrich the profits of the testing companies and certainly has no interest in promoting a national health care system, which the rest of the industrialized world has. The United States is the most backward country in the industrialized world and simply cannot afford to go to war.

We are witnessing a repeat of World War 1. The Tsar could not afford to feeds his troops, and Russia ended World War 1 with the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917. The Germans also had their socialist revolution which took power for a short time in some provinces, where soldiers and workers councils took office, forcing the Kaiser to bring the troops home, and then the Kaiser fled to Holland.

The world today again is faced with the choice of barbarism or socialism.

I'll pretty much believe anything is possible after it came to light some years back that the CIA was raising money by trafficing in cocaine, but Justice I think you're way off base on this one. No freaking way did we dive bomb ourselves. (Well, maybe by repeatedly siding with Isreal and enraging the greater Middle East we did.)

Reese,

Why is it so inconceivable to you that our glorious CIA would not employ the same tactics at home as they do abroad? Do you really trust them to tell you the truth? Our gov't would not even admit that they shot down the plane over Pennsylvania, which is obvious from the cover story they concocted about 'hero passengers' and all that other B.S.

We did not sponsor the Taliban during the Afghan War. We sponsored the mujaheddin. The Taliban arose afterwards, a byproduct of our intervention. So let me ask you: Who made who?

While we're on foreign policy, let's talk about Cambodia. Our gov't, during the war in Viet Nam, encouraged the Cambodian gov't to enter the war on our side. Then we abandoned them to the Khymer(sp) Rouge, who killed over a million of their own people (out of a total of seven million in the country!), while another three million became refugees. All thanks to the Good 'ol US of A!

And how about those Contras, huh? Reagan funded them behind the backs of Congress when they banned Federal suppport for the murdering bastards. And guess how? Our wonderful CIA, who sold missles to the Iranians, took the money, bought arms for the Contras, got cocaine from the Contras, imported that to America, took the profits, and repeated the cycle. (Oh yeah, with a little left over for North and Secord in Swiss bank accounts: $2million+)

That is only a small percentage of the atrocities that we have committed in the name of capitalism. And that is why the world hates US.

"Our gov't would not even admit that they shot down the plane over Pennsylvania, which is obvious from the cover story they concocted about 'hero passengers' and all that other B.S."

Phone calls from the passengers before the plane went down back this story up. Witnesses saw the plane go down and saw no explosion which would indicate it had been hit by a missle.

I will concede that our government didn't announce right away that Bush had given the okay to down the plane.

I also find it odd that some kind of debris from the plane was found miles away.

However, I think there is no doubt that the passengers on that flight fought back. Are you disputing that?

If you think so little of the US government and the actions the government takes, then why don't you go and live somewhere else? Clearly, you've been so spoiled by the freedom that you have living in the US that you take it for granted, because if you didn't take it for granted you would recognize that many of the liberties we have exist only in the US. They have been created by our government, the same entity which you criticize. (I'm sure you know that in many parts of the world you would be jailed or killed for writing what you have written about the government. The US government protects you because of our right to freedom of speech.)

Maybe all your talk about the ills of our government make you dislike yourself for ENJOYING life in a capitalist society. This country is what it is because of its government, created and defended by the people who live in it. They worked hard and sacrificed to make it what it is. Someone like you, who has sacrificed nothing and takes it for granted thinks that freedom is and inalienable right You have no right to criticize!

Ask anyone who's lived in Afghanistan if freedom is an inalienable right! Ask anyone who's lived in Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, Croatia, Serbia, Mexico, El Salvador, among others, who know what its like to live with gunfire and war outside their homes; who have witnessed their parents being killed simply for speaking against their government; who've been forbidden from having an education or from receiving medical attention simply because they were women. Ask anyone who was forced to leave their country by any means possible because they would prefer to risk dying rather than continue to live under inhumane conditions. These are examples of DAILY LIFE in some of these countries. Until you have lived without freedom, you don't know what freedom is, therfore, you have no right to criticize the people who defend it FOR YOU.

The riches found in this country are not brought on by the capitalism but from the day to day freedom those of us who live here are fortunate to share.