George Bush never claimed Arabs hate us for our freedoms. He said TERRORISTS hate us for our freedoms, as evidenced by their stated motives. Nearly all terrorists are fighting to preserve an old fashioned, theocratic society like Iran and fight against more modern societies like Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

nuke em

Saudi Arabia... a modern societies, this is a country that doesn't women drive and that women are only allowed out with the man of the house or written permission from the man of the house. There is a massive amount of fearmongering going on in the USA and if the worst new channels like FOX news actually reported truth they would have report that most extremists have routes in Saudi Arabia. Non of the 9/11 hijackers were from Iran but 15 were from Saudi Arabia and 1 was Egyptian. So please try and wake up, Iran is not a big threat to America and countries that America say are 'advanced societies with democracy' aren't really but they just play for their team so it is all swept under the rug. Saudi Arabia isn't a democracy so when are America going to go in and give these people freedom then, Bush is the world biggest hypocrites and has tricked America into making some very bad decisions over the last terrible 8 years.

To Dwindle's comment:

I've heard the "freedom hatred" hypothesis of terrorist motivations also, but in most of his statements, bin Laden seems to be at pains to explain that his group his indeed motivated by specific U.S. and Israeli policies.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2002/nov/24/theobserver

http://www.cesnur.org/2004/osama_video.htm

-increase

Dwindle obviously is of the school that believes the rest of us are idiots. This asinine premise "They hate us for our freedoms" is almost as ridiculous as this "We are fighting them there so we don't have to fight them here".

Actually, heres one of the supreme reasons they hate us...........

Ohlmert claims to have a letter from Bush that gives Israel "permission to expand the West Bank settlements that it hopes to retain in a final peace deal, even though Bush's peace plan officially calls for a freeze of Israeli settlements across Palestinian territories on the West Bank".

Of course, Bush's mouthpieces deny such an agreement exists. But who can believe Ohlmert would claim the existence of such a letter if he could not produce it?

So, this pathetic monkey Bush's rhetoric about peace is just more horseshit, offered up to buttress what he hopes will be history's skewed recollection of the truth. And Rice, if truly pursuing solutions, (which I doubt), was undermined before she even left the gate.

They don't need to hate us for "our freedoms", as there is plenty to despise without salivating about our "freedoms". (Freedoms, I might add, that the neocon wackjobs that are goosing Bush seem determined to further diminish).

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/23/AR2008042303128_pf.html

BTW, Steve, when are you going to demand your money back from the jackass that designed this "CAPTCHA" irritation? Or haven't enough of your commentors complained yet?

@pissed ...

The letters Olmert refered to were published by Haaretz years ago:
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=415475&contrassID=2&subContrassID=1&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=417035&contrassID=2&subContrassID=1&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y

Just because the U.S. press doesn't write about this, doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

The Arabs of course know these letters and what they mean.

Nice to see the obvious captured and quantified in the data.

This is not an issue solely with Islamic countries. US standing
throughout the world has slipped enormously, possibly
irretievably.

People everywhere are profoundly upset at the US's unilateral
and coercive behavior, selfish posture, abridgment of other
people's rights and freedom, illegal invasions, wars and
occupation of other countries, and damage to the world's
economy, and setbacks to human rights norms and processes.

When I travelled through Europe last year, a common pattern
emerged. After meeting a new person, a day or two later they
would say something like 'You seem like a nice person, but
what's the matter with America?' It was remarkable how often
this happened with people of different social strata and
ethnicities, in different countries, all of whom have been
historically oriented towards the US. It's much bigger than poor,
brown Muslims. It's everyone.

I remember Ron Paul getting reamed by, I beleive, McCain for stating the obvious - the US is hated for its policies - during one of the early debates.

The mainstream media and two Presedential candidates go beserk because Rev. Wright tells his congregation that the US chickens have come home to roost - our policies are coming back to haunt us.

Speaking truth to idiots is a lost cause. How on earth can most of the mainstream media and candidates like McCain and Clinton be taken seriously?

It must be that "idiot-speak" is embraced by fellow idiots. I don't like being cynical or mean, but the obviousness of this is unavoidable.

It seems that most people aren't interested in the truth.

In an insane society the sane will always appear as crazy.

Arabs would say that, wouldn't they? But it's America's vigorous actions based on its values that ultimately will save Arabs from being swept out by al Qaeda and the various Muslim Brotherhoods.

How did the term "values" come to be applied to this topic? Our "values" are what, laudable?

Maybe once upon a time. But what does the rest of the world see?

Are we responsible custodians to our environment? Do we "value" our planet?

Are we responsible captors of our enemies, or do we torture them? Do we "value" human rights?

How is our justice system being viewed? With none of the criminals in Washington being held accountable, do we "value" the rule of law applied equally amongst ALL men?

Considering the condition of our complicit and abetting Fourth Estate, do we "value" the truth?

The term "values" has no place in a discussion of the United States at this time. We are corrupt, money grubbing, deceitful, hateful, murderous, cruel, unlawful, and imperialistic at this time. Those are not the traits of a nation wuith sound moral "values".

As far as the question about the American- adopted values is concerned, I donot find any iota of doubt in my mind that there seems to be no reason that the Arabs must show their feelings of annoyance with the Americans, but so far as the question about the American-endorsed policies towards the Arabs are concerned, there appears to be logical justification about the Arabs' feelings of discontent, resentment , rejection and plight, particularly with refrence to the Washington- advoacted policy of overriding favouritism towards the Jews.

i think they should get over themselves!

Dwindle...Did you just say Saudi Arabia is a modern society? If anything, it is even worst that Iran. Try going to a market without a Burqa, try speaking about other religions, put a jew in saudi arabia, and see what the police will do (it is against Saudi law for jew's to enter), Try to say anything about Shias in a good way, see what will happen...

you make a great point though, but Saudi Arabis is SOOOOOOOOO far from modern society.

I also wasn't very surprised at this. going to the middle east many times, people treat me great, they don't hate me, that hate my countries government's policies.