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I just wanted to compliment the ICQ for publishing "Why Do They Hate Us?" in its last edition. I feel it is important for people to hear another perspective.

So often we hear politicians talk about people in the Middle East hating the United States for "its freedom and the American way of life." I feel that those are not the real reasons at all. As a country, we have to look at what fuels the anger of many Middle Eastern people. I think a lot of their anger most certainly has to do with our military support for Israel, our overthrow of moderate regimes in favor of dictatorships that oppress their own people, and our constant bombings and sanctions against Iraq that in the process kill thousands of innocent people.

I think that after this country has finished in Afghanistan it should work to change its foreign policy to one that strives to benefit all people, and not just its own. The United States is the number-one country in a lot of categories --- and it can be in humanitarianism, too, if it wants to be. Then it truly would be number one.

Ted Timmel ’02
Ithaca, New York