You make my day. Posting on slashdor I fill more often than not that I may as well send my comments to/dev/null.
And here you actually quote something that I wrote quite some time ago. Is this just some freaky mal-function of slashcode or did you repost an older comment?
I wished I could moderate you up, but having commented in this thread I can not.
My American wife was quite shocked to learn that most of our neighbors fear (for) America after 9/11, for exactly the reasons that you outlined.
Especially the old people like my grand-ma who has witnessed how easily Hitler undermined the 1st German republic, fear that history could repeat itself in the most powerful nation the globe has ever seen.
BTW my grand-ma learned the lesson history thought her in very cruel terms (she was in Dresden during infamous air-raid). Being apolitical before WWII she now always ushers all her friends to vote in every election. I take quite some pride in her.
When saying "defending democracy" what is meant is indeed to defend the freedom to vote on a regularly basis, because that is the first freedom that Hitler took away. The ultimate check and balance is to vote a government out of office and our constitutions now mandates to go to whatever means necessary to preserve this fundamental democratic right.
I understand you concern for not granting a government the power to collect all sorts of information about it citizens. I think the Datenschutz (data-protection) law actually governs that any entity within Germany has to delete all data on you after six month if you have not interacted with this entity within that time-period. Officials of each German state called "Datenschutzbeauftragte" are supposed to ensure this law. Governmental agencies are usually pretty good in following it. On the other hand companies interested in doing database marketing are usually exploiting every loophole or simply ignore it when they are reasonably certain that they can get away with it.
For the Iris scan this probably means the individuals participating allow that a background check is run on them but at the end all the information that is stored is Iris pattern and name. If they don't fly for more than 6 months they will probably have to reapply.
I am very sorry for the bad experiences that your friends made. I won't deny that discrimination of foreigners is persistent and it will differ for foreigners depending on the national background.
Russians are probably especially vulnerable to the kind of police harassment that you described because your average cop will immediate equate Russian with Russian mafia until proven innocent. Not a pretty picture. They would almost certainly not enforce the ID law if you'd be fluent in German or English and can explain to them how you are and what you're about.
Since my American wife was an accented foreigner I believed I was getting some insight on how your average German approaches an English speaker. Either they would immediately try to speak English with her or later when her accent was too good to recognize that she was a foreigner they mistook her for slow of mind. The latter always drove her furious.
BTW Germany shares these stupid citizenship laws with Switzerland. In fact there they are even stricter that in Germany even if married to a Swiss person they will make it very hard for you to become Swiss.
I simply do not understand these laws. To me there is no point in defining a nation on an ethnic basis. Germany has a vibrant culture that can stand on its own. We should dispose of this historic baggage in a hurry and follow the French lead again.
Almost all modern days laws in Germany go back to Napoleon. It's about time we finish the job and model citizenship and separation of church and state after the French example as well.
Having lived in Germany as well as the USA (currently back in the USA again). Being German and married to an American and I can hardly claim to be objective. For what it's worth I will share my oberservations with you anyway.
Never have I heard somebody using the N word for Turkish people, although in Eastern Germany I wouldn't completly rule it out, but where did you get the idea that this would be acceptable bahaviour in Germany?
Before coming back to the states my wife and I lived in Heidelberg for the last 4 years.
Our neighbors Wolfgang and Inchy were German and Turkish respectively. They had the cutest little boy who they raised bi-lingual. She is running her own hair salon while he is working as an Audi car mechanic. They are both great people and very much liked in the neighborhood.
Inchy being a self asserted, independent woman is maybe not your typical example, but she is very much representative for the 2nd generation of Turkish immigrants.
There are hot-spots were integration didn't happen and did not work. You will find these mostly in large cities such as Berlin, Hamburg etc. It is there were Islamic fundamentalism finds willing followers. Immigrants to distant lands tend to glorify and idealize the state of the culture that they left behind. That is why I find anything that is regarded as typical German in the US either hilariously quaint and completely out of sync with modern Germany or simply embarrassing. That is also why young Turkish people that my parents met in the southern Turkish city of Antalia told them that it is Germany were you can find the worst backwards Turkish people who cling to completely outdated ideas of what is supposed to be Turkish.
I am 100% with you that the citizenship laws in Germany are completely bogus. They are one of the main reasons why I voted for the Green party in the last election because they sincerely want to let go of these stupid ethnic focused definitions of what is considered German. Being fluent in German and sharing the values of modern-day multi-ethnic Germany is what should count and nothing else.
I am very much in favor of Turkey joining the EU. Once this happens this issue will be moot anyway (EU citizens are free to live and vote on the town council level anywhere in the union).
The main difference between Germany and the US is that there are hardly any neighborhoods in Germany that I don't feel save to walk in at night.
Inner city segregation is much worse in the US. And the school diversity is back to the level before the busing started in the 70s.
I don't think the US is in any position to point fingers at Germany for not learning of its mistakes.
The lesson that we drew from history is that democracy has to be defended at all cost. I don't mind that an administration that I trust knows who I am and where I am knowing that this information will not be abused. I have this level of comfort and faith in the German as well as EU institutions and the contemporary German governments (may they be social-democrats or conservatives). But I don't blame any American for not having the same level of comfort with American institutions because I certainly don't have either.
Working for a large American software vendor I can attest to the fact that we leverage a lot of Open Source products with our proprietory stuff. Tomcat, Apache, MySQL Linux, Xalan etc.
The assumption that Open Source software is a natural enemy of commercial software development and vice versa is simply wrong.
The overall energy density of slowly decaying isotops is note all that high. The biological danger stems from the fact that for each single decay the gamma/beta or alpha burst carries a lot of energy but if you tally them all up over the length of a year even a sizeable amout of nuclear waste won't get you all that far. Since the isotopes are contained all the radiation energy is converted into heat. Nuclear waste containers are designed to withstand a certain amount of heat, but with regular nuclear waste after the initial cool down period those things get toasty warm at best. Not enough useable energy there to make it worth trying to convert it into some from of electricity. But you could try to heat your house with it:)
Not those particular isotopes. Nuclear reactions tend to create new less stable and hence more radioactive isotopes. The once that decay quickly are initially most dangerous, but it is the once with half-times in excess of a couple of thousand years that cause long term headache.
You're idea is nevertheless charming, but in order to get them into a region that really gets subducted completly you would have to dig a very deep hole. It'll be very expansive if at all doable. If you don't get deep enough you will just end up deposing nuclear waste in an earthquake prone area, and virtually gurantee that the ecosystem there will be contaminated sooner or later.
Unfortunately your links are not working for me. Every one gave me a server error message. That is why I can only respond to the incidents that I recognize best:
The night club in Berlin was picked because it was heavily frequented by GIs. I was in Germany at the time and it was very clear from the beginning that this terror act was aimed at the USA and not at Germany. The Red Army Fraction terror had German politicians much more worried at the time.
France has an ugly colonial past in Algeria that it never quite came clear with and therefore has been for much longer a favorite target of hate of the Arab world than the USA.
Regarding your views of Arab people I can only urge you again to read the Iraqi blogs. There is no such thing as your typical Arab just as there is no such thing as your typical American Joe.
And yes, I can point you to smoother transfers of power in the world. For instances, all Eastern European countries after the Soviets stopped backing the communist regimes come to mind (this does not include Romania that did not have any Soviet presence). If you want an example of a smoother power transition that involved military force Bosnia makes a good candidate.
Some of the easily avoidable mistakes that have been made in Iraq:
- Only securing the ministry of oil and allowing the other ministries to be looted. - Dissolving the Iraqi army over-night and making thousands unemployed as a result. - Making it a crime to trade with fuel.
The list goes on. I don't think malice has been a factor in any of these mistakes. Ignorance seems to be a much more likely cause. Read the Iraqis blogs they will give your more details.
Bottom-line is: The US administration has to live up to the challenge of transforming Iraq into a democracy. Anything less will be utter failure. Let's hope that they at least can learn from their mistakes.
If the US fails in Iraq it will only compound Arab hatred towards the US. This hatred does matter because as long as the underlying political problems are not addressed Osama et. al. will always find recruits.
I think you seriously underestimate the common sense of the Arab street. Pointing out that you can buy the "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion" in Arab countries is like pointing out that you can purchase Hitler's "Mein Kampf" at Amazon. What is that supposed to prove? On the other hand there is evidence that real action does count, after all for the longest time there have been no terror acts against Israel while Rabin and Arafat were brokering for a real peace.
There is no other way but real action that demonstrates that the USA is not a foe to Arabs or Islam. It's the hard way, but there is no quick fix and there is no alternative.
Silly me, got the time arrow confused again. Yet, this opens an interesting alternative to the wall, that Israel builds. They should rather put that money into research for a time machine, so that the Palestinians can be beamed back in time to become their own descendants. Or alternatively all fundametalist settlers can be send back into the glorious days of king David's Israel. That'll take care of this problem once and for all.
With all due respect most Western countries do indeed believe human rights to be universal. As such it is noteworthy to a large portion of the/. audience that Saudi Arabia seems not to subscribe to these values as documented by the obvious restrictions of freedom that women enjoy in your country of choice.
What I never understood is how this particular aspect of your culture came about, given that the prophet himself seemed to have highly valued and supported independently thinking women i.e. his daughter Fatima.
I was always wondering how the Islamic culture came to the current state. During the middle age the Arab world was so far ahead of Europe in terms of science, culture and political tolerance, but this all seemed to have reversed. The European renaissance couldn't have taken off without the knowledge imported from the Arab world, but how come there has never been a similar development in Islam?
The post war efforts in Iraq have shown that too many political mistakes are still made. The US military performed flawlessly but the administrative planning has been lousy.
I monitor these Iraq blogs that I can highly recommend:
They are all happy that Saddam is gone, and want democracy in Iraq, but they also mercilessly shed light on all the mistakes that have been made, and that can have catastrophic consequences for these people. I very much feel for them.
If the US does not manage to convert Iraq into a democratic and free society the whole effort was for naught. That'll be utterly depressing.
The US can simply not afford to misunderstand the situation on the ground in Iraq, Palestine, Afghanistan, Pakistan etc. Too much depends on it.
Ironically enough, most Palestinians are actually ancestors of the original Jewish population that converted to Christianity or Islam. It is almost like the longest most bloody family feud in the recent history of mankind. Makes me feel embarrassed to belong to the human specie every time I think about it.
Saddam was a criminal, so were Franco as well as Pinochet. Stalin or Hitler After the 1st murder that they ordered it really becomes quite academic to argue who was worse.
All of European terrorism has been home grown. And all terrorist activities e.g. IRA in the UK, RAF in Germany have been not eradicated militarily but rather by solid police work and much more important political initiative.
Rock solid politics is the foundation to overcome terrorism. Everything else is secondary. The US because of its outstanding position simply can not afford the kind of mistakes that have happened in the past.
But instead of pressing ahead with political initiatives to resolve one of the main causes for Arab hate against the US - the current administration solely relied on military might.
The post war efforts in Iraq have shown that too many political mistakes are still made. The US military performed flawlessly but the administrative planning has been lousy.
I monitor these Iraq blogs that I can highly recommend:
They are all happy that Saddam is gone, and want democracy in Iraq, but they also mercilessly shed light on all the mistakes that have been made, and that can have catastrophic consequences for these people. I very much feel for them.
If the US does not manage to convert Iraq into a democratic and free society the whole effort was for naught. That'll be utterly depressing.
The US can simply not afford to misunderstand the situation on the ground in Iraq, Palestine, Afghanistan, Pakistan etc. Too much depends on it.
It is the scope of impact if something goes seriously wrong that makes people wary. For the same reason you will not find a non-governmental insurance to underwrite for compensation of all damage for every accident scenario at a nuclear power plant.
If commercial insurances find the risk unmanagable I fail to see how current fission technology is supposed to be a profitable endavour for the general public.
According to these numbers [studentsoftheworld.info] the combined GDP of France and Germany is not that far behind Japan. I also picked Singapore because in terms of GDP per capita [quia.com] it is the only Asian country other than Japan that outranks the US. Given that it is a tiny city state embedded in much poorer countries it should be suffering heavily from terrorism if envy was what motivates terrorists.
I see you dismissed Japan because it is not a superpower. How do you define superpower? Is Japan missing the nukes that usually come with that status? I doubt that America having nukes is what upsets Osama.
If you define superpower as meddling in other countries' affairs I am with you. Going through your list I would just change the wording:
* Supporting the Islamic fundamentalist insurgence against the Soviet backed Afghan government to then leave the country to its own devices once the Soviets were expelled.
(Check)
* Support of Israel no matter what happens in Palestine and allowing the peace process to crumble after Rabin got shot by a fundamentalist Jewish Settler.
(Check)
* Supporting the house of Saude no matter how they run their country.
(Check)
This list is of course far from complete but I am glade to see that we actually agree on some key areas where the US foreign policy failed miserably.
If they hate America for the "strong, relatively stable economy", why do they not hate Japan, Canada, Germany, France, Singapore etc. just as much?
Stop kidding yourself. 9/11 wouldn't have happened without the US of A engaging in some really crappy foreign politics over the last couple of decades.
As a European who was not in favor of this war, I can assure you that Europeans would have been much less opposed to this war if the US administration had stated clearly what this war is all about. The WMD issue was and is simply not believable. Nobody likes to be fooled. Nobody likes to send soldiers into harms way for foolish reasons.
If they would have argued from the very beginning that this is only about removing Saddam from power to bring prosperity and freedom to Iraq they would have found more support in Europe.
Slashdot Mirror
You make my day. Posting on slashdor I fill more often than not that I may as well send my comments to /dev/null.
And here you actually quote something that I wrote quite some time ago. Is this just some freaky mal-function of slashcode or did you repost an older comment?
At this point I'd gladly accept an isolationist US administration over the current one.
True, but not for lack of trying.
Granted this project outgrew its modest high-school roots, but judging from the pictures the technology seems to be very similar.
I wished I could moderate you up, but having commented in this thread I can not.
My American wife was quite shocked to learn that most of our neighbors fear (for) America after 9/11, for exactly the reasons that you outlined.
Especially the old people like my grand-ma who has witnessed how easily Hitler undermined the 1st German republic, fear that history could repeat itself in the most powerful nation the globe has ever seen.
BTW my grand-ma learned the lesson history thought her in very cruel terms (she was in Dresden during infamous air-raid). Being apolitical before WWII she now always ushers all her friends to vote in every election. I take quite some pride in her.
When saying "defending democracy" what is meant is indeed to defend the freedom to vote on a regularly basis, because that is the first freedom that Hitler took away. The ultimate check and balance is to vote a government out of office and our constitutions now mandates to go to whatever means necessary to preserve this fundamental democratic right.
I understand you concern for not granting a government the power to collect all sorts of information about it citizens. I think the Datenschutz (data-protection) law actually governs that any entity within Germany has to delete all data on you after six month if you have not interacted with this entity within that time-period. Officials of each German state called "Datenschutzbeauftragte" are supposed to ensure this law. Governmental agencies are usually pretty good in following it. On the other hand companies interested in doing database marketing are usually exploiting every loophole or simply ignore it when they are reasonably certain that they can get away with it.
For the Iris scan this probably means the individuals participating allow that a background check is run on them but at the end all the information that is stored is Iris pattern and name. If they don't fly for more than 6 months they will probably have to reapply.
I am very sorry for the bad experiences that your friends made. I won't deny that discrimination of foreigners is persistent and it will differ for foreigners depending on the national background.
Russians are probably especially vulnerable to the kind of police harassment that you described because your average cop will immediate equate Russian with Russian mafia until proven innocent. Not a pretty picture. They would almost certainly not enforce the ID law if you'd be fluent in German or English and can explain to them how you are and what you're about.
Since my American wife was an accented foreigner I believed I was getting some insight on how your average German approaches an English speaker. Either they would immediately try to speak English with her or later when her accent was too good to recognize that she was a foreigner they mistook her for slow of mind. The latter always drove her furious.
BTW Germany shares these stupid citizenship laws with Switzerland. In fact there they are even stricter that in Germany even if married to a Swiss person they will make it very hard for you to become Swiss.
I simply do not understand these laws. To me there is no point in defining a nation on an ethnic basis. Germany has a vibrant culture that can stand on its own. We should dispose of this historic baggage in a hurry and follow the French lead again.
Almost all modern days laws in Germany go back to Napoleon. It's about time we finish the job and model citizenship and separation of church and state after the French example as well.
Having lived in Germany as well as the USA (currently back in the USA again). Being German and married to an American and I can hardly claim to be objective. For what it's worth I will share my oberservations with you anyway.
Never have I heard somebody using the N word for Turkish people, although in Eastern Germany I wouldn't completly rule it out, but where did you get the idea that this would be acceptable bahaviour in Germany?
Before coming back to the states my wife and I lived in Heidelberg for the last 4 years.
Our neighbors Wolfgang and Inchy were German and Turkish respectively. They had the cutest little boy who they raised bi-lingual. She is running her own hair salon while he is working as an Audi car mechanic. They are both great people and very much liked in the neighborhood.
Inchy being a self asserted, independent woman is maybe not your typical example, but she is very much representative for the 2nd generation of Turkish immigrants.
There are hot-spots were integration didn't happen and did not work. You will find these mostly in large cities such as Berlin, Hamburg etc. It is there were Islamic fundamentalism finds willing followers. Immigrants to distant lands tend to glorify and idealize the state of the culture that they left behind. That is why I find anything that is regarded as typical German in the US either hilariously quaint and completely out of sync with modern Germany or simply embarrassing. That is also why young Turkish people that my parents met in the southern Turkish city of Antalia told them that it is Germany were you can find the worst backwards Turkish people who cling to completely outdated ideas of what is supposed to be Turkish.
I am 100% with you that the citizenship laws in Germany are completely bogus. They are one of the main reasons why I voted for the Green party in the last election because they sincerely want to let go of these stupid ethnic focused definitions of what is considered German. Being fluent in German and sharing the values of modern-day multi-ethnic Germany is what should count and nothing else.
I am very much in favor of Turkey joining the EU. Once this happens this issue will be moot anyway (EU citizens are free to live and vote on the town council level anywhere in the union).
The main difference between Germany and the US is that there are hardly any neighborhoods in Germany that I don't feel save to walk in at night.
Inner city segregation is much worse in the US. And the school diversity is back to the level before the busing started in the 70s.
I don't think the US is in any position to point fingers at Germany for not learning of its mistakes.
The lesson that we drew from history is that democracy has to be defended at all cost. I don't mind that an administration that I trust knows who I am and where I am knowing that this information will not be abused. I have this level of comfort and faith in the German as well as EU institutions and the contemporary German governments (may they be social-democrats or conservatives). But I don't blame any American for not having the same level of comfort with American institutions because I certainly don't have either.
Working for a large American software vendor I can attest to the fact that we leverage a lot of Open Source products with our proprietory stuff. Tomcat, Apache, MySQL Linux, Xalan etc.
The assumption that Open Source software is a natural enemy of commercial software development and vice versa is simply wrong.
The overall energy density of slowly decaying isotops is note all that high. The biological danger stems from the fact that for each single decay the gamma/beta or alpha burst carries a lot of energy but if you tally them all up over the length of a year even a sizeable amout of nuclear waste won't get you all that far. Since the isotopes are contained all the radiation energy is converted into heat. Nuclear waste containers are designed to withstand a certain amount of heat, but with regular nuclear waste after the initial cool down period those things get toasty warm at best. Not enough useable energy there to make it worth trying to convert it into some from of electricity. But you could try to heat your house with it :)
Not those particular isotopes. Nuclear reactions tend to create new less stable and hence more radioactive isotopes. The once that decay quickly are initially most dangerous, but it is the once with half-times in excess of a couple of thousand years that cause long term headache.
You're idea is nevertheless charming, but in order to get them into a region that really gets subducted completly you would have to dig a very deep hole. It'll be very expansive if at all doable. If you don't get deep enough you will just end up deposing nuclear waste in an earthquake prone area, and virtually gurantee that the ecosystem there will be contaminated sooner or later.
The really scary bit is that "those guys who lost" did not invent the idea.
Unfortunately your links are not working for me. Every one gave me a server error message. That is why I can only respond to the incidents that I recognize best:
The night club in Berlin was picked because it was heavily frequented by GIs. I was in Germany at the time and it was very clear from the beginning that this terror act was aimed at the USA and not at Germany. The Red Army Fraction terror had German politicians much more worried at the time.
France has an ugly colonial past in Algeria that it never quite came clear with and therefore has been for much longer a favorite target of hate of the Arab world than the USA.
Regarding your views of Arab people I can only urge you again to read the Iraqi blogs. There is no such thing as your typical Arab just as there is no such thing as your typical American Joe.
And yes, I can point you to smoother transfers of power in the world. For instances, all Eastern European countries after the Soviets stopped backing the communist regimes come to mind (this does not include Romania that did not have any Soviet presence). If you want an example of a smoother power transition that involved military force Bosnia makes a good candidate.
Some of the easily avoidable mistakes that have been made in Iraq:
- Only securing the ministry of oil and allowing the other ministries to be looted.
- Dissolving the Iraqi army over-night and making thousands unemployed as a result.
- Making it a crime to trade with fuel.
The list goes on. I don't think malice has been a factor in any of these mistakes. Ignorance seems to be a much more likely cause. Read the Iraqis blogs they will give your more details.
Bottom-line is: The US administration has to live up to the challenge of transforming Iraq into a democracy. Anything less will be utter failure. Let's hope that they at least can learn from their mistakes.
If the US fails in Iraq it will only compound Arab hatred towards the US. This hatred does matter because as long as the underlying political problems are not addressed Osama et. al. will always find recruits.
I think you seriously underestimate the common sense of the Arab street. Pointing out that you can buy the "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion" in Arab countries is like pointing out that you can purchase Hitler's "Mein Kampf" at Amazon. What is that supposed to prove? On the other hand there is evidence that real action does count, after all for the longest time there have been no terror acts against Israel while Rabin and Arafat were brokering for a real peace.
There is no other way but real action that demonstrates that the USA is not a foe to Arabs or Islam. It's the hard way, but there is no quick fix and there is no alternative.
Silly me, got the time arrow confused again. Yet, this opens an interesting alternative to the wall, that Israel builds. They should rather put that money into research for a time machine, so that the Palestinians can be beamed back in time to become their own descendants. Or alternatively all fundametalist settlers can be send back into the glorious days of king David's Israel. That'll take care of this problem once and for all.
With all due respect most Western countries do indeed believe human rights to be universal. As such it is noteworthy to a large portion of the /. audience that Saudi Arabia seems not to subscribe to these values as documented by the obvious restrictions of freedom that women enjoy in your country of choice.
What I never understood is how this particular aspect of your culture came about, given that the prophet himself seemed to have highly valued and supported independently thinking women i.e. his daughter Fatima.
I was always wondering how the Islamic culture came to the current state. During the middle age the Arab world was so far ahead of Europe in terms of science, culture and political tolerance, but this all seemed to have reversed. The European renaissance couldn't have taken off without the knowledge imported from the Arab world, but how come there has never been a similar development in Islam?
The post war efforts in Iraq have shown that too many political mistakes are still made. The US military performed flawlessly but the administrative planning has been lousy.
I monitor these Iraq blogs that I can highly recommend:
salam&raed
riverbend
healing Iraq
They are all happy that Saddam is gone, and want democracy in Iraq, but they also mercilessly shed light on all the mistakes that have been made, and that can have catastrophic consequences for these people. I very much feel for them.
If the US does not manage to convert Iraq into a democratic and free society the whole effort was for naught. That'll be utterly depressing.
The US can simply not afford to misunderstand the situation on the ground in Iraq, Palestine, Afghanistan, Pakistan etc. Too much depends on it.
Ironically enough, most Palestinians are actually ancestors of the original Jewish population that converted to Christianity or Islam. It is almost like the longest most bloody family feud in the recent history of mankind. Makes me feel embarrassed to belong to the human specie every time I think about it.
Saddam was a criminal, so were Franco as well as Pinochet. Stalin or Hitler After the 1st murder that they ordered it really becomes quite academic to argue who was worse.
All of European terrorism has been home grown. And all terrorist activities e.g. IRA in the UK, RAF in Germany have been not eradicated militarily but rather by solid police work and much more important political initiative.
Rock solid politics is the foundation to overcome terrorism. Everything else is secondary. The US because of its outstanding position simply can not afford the kind of mistakes that have happened in the past.
But instead of pressing ahead with political initiatives to resolve one of the main causes for Arab hate against the US - the current administration solely relied on military might.
The post war efforts in Iraq have shown that too many political mistakes are still made. The US military performed flawlessly but the administrative planning has been lousy.
I monitor these Iraq blogs that I can highly recommend:
salam&raed
riverbend
healing Iraq
They are all happy that Saddam is gone, and want democracy in Iraq, but they also mercilessly shed light on all the mistakes that have been made, and that can have catastrophic consequences for these people. I very much feel for them.
If the US does not manage to convert Iraq into a democratic and free society the whole effort was for naught. That'll be utterly depressing.
The US can simply not afford to misunderstand the situation on the ground in Iraq, Palestine, Afghanistan, Pakistan etc. Too much depends on it.
It is the scope of impact if something goes seriously wrong that makes people wary. For the same reason you will not find a non-governmental insurance to underwrite for compensation of all damage for every accident scenario at a nuclear power plant.
If commercial insurances find the risk unmanagable I fail to see how current fission technology is supposed to be a profitable endavour for the general public.
According to these numbers [studentsoftheworld.info] the combined GDP of France and Germany is not that far behind Japan. I also picked Singapore because in terms of GDP per capita [quia.com] it is the only Asian country other than Japan that outranks the US. Given that it is a tiny city state embedded in much poorer countries it should be suffering heavily from terrorism if envy was what motivates terrorists.
I see you dismissed Japan because it is not a superpower. How do you define superpower? Is Japan missing the nukes that usually come with that status? I doubt that America having nukes is what upsets Osama.
If you define superpower as meddling in other countries' affairs I am with you. Going through your list I would just change the wording:
* Supporting the Islamic fundamentalist insurgence against the Soviet backed Afghan government to then leave the country to its own devices once the Soviets were expelled.
(Check)
* Support of Israel no matter what happens in Palestine and allowing the peace process to crumble after Rabin got shot by a fundamentalist Jewish Settler.
(Check)
* Supporting the house of Saude no matter how they run their country.
(Check)
This list is of course far from complete but I am glade to see that we actually agree on some key areas where the US foreign policy failed miserably.
If they hate America for the "strong, relatively stable economy", why do they not hate Japan, Canada, Germany, France, Singapore etc. just as much?
Stop kidding yourself. 9/11 wouldn't have happened without the US of A engaging in some really crappy foreign politics over the last couple of decades.
Great and then we can all burn radioactive fuel in our SUVs. Your attitude nicely illustrates why the USA is all so popular in the rest of the world.
As a European who was not in favor of this war, I can assure you that Europeans would have been much less opposed to this war if the US administration had stated clearly what this war is all about. The WMD issue was and is simply not believable. Nobody likes to be fooled. Nobody likes to send soldiers into harms way for foolish reasons.
If they would have argued from the very beginning that this is only about removing Saddam from power to bring prosperity and freedom to Iraq they would have found more support in Europe.