The rest of the world has hated us for most of the 20th century. Even the countries that we bail out end up hating us. French disdain for the US, for example, is nothing new.
I think that hate of the US is largely due to jealousy. So far the US has managed to do nearly everything better than any other country in the world, ever. Wouldn’t you get resentful of a coworker who through ingenuity, strength, or natural assets always beats you?
Many compare today’s foreign relations to the relations right after 9-11-2001. That international sympathetic outpouring was an aberration, not normalcy. Since then the world has returned to its normal state of affairs with one exception: others are being more open about their true anti-Americanism.
The only thing that the Bush Administration did was to force other countries to be more open with their decades-long, hateful views.
It’s no surprise that this “let’s beat up on the Americans” mentality has carried through several Olympics, including the 2004 Summer Olympics: http://www.usatoday.com/sports/columnist/lopresti/2004-08-27-lopresti_x.htm
When cussing and discussing America, we often forget that–despite mistakes that many seem to exclusively focus on–the USA is an awesome force of good.
