> We're hated because we have a higher standard of living than anyone else and they're all envious.
Thor, thanks for your deep and insight and analysis of the question, "Why do they hate us?" A lesser intellect would have posted some knee-jerk reflexive thing about everyone else being jealous. Oh, wait a minute....
Most Americans have little knowledge of or interest in the foreign policy of their country, until it either affects their own pocketbook, or they're left with a disaster of monumental proportions (such as the Iraw war). Is there anything the U.S. has done over the last century in its many adventures in Latin America and other places that you disagree with, or is it all good?
Probably the greatest crime that Saddam committed was going to war with Iran. Poison gas was used against Iranian troops. The U.S. knew it. The U.S. was OK with it. Probably 100,000 died from gas attacks. A million Iranian men were killed. The U.S. didn't like Iran. The U.S. was OK with it.
And now that Saddam died in an apparently sectarian hanging (this is what 3000 American soldiers died for?), he'll never be tried for his many other crimes, including the ones that are embarassing to the U.S.