Anti American

I wonder if President Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder have given any thought to the costs, both emotional and financial, of providing terrorist "suspect" Khalid Sheikh Mohammed a stage on which to spew his hatred for American infidels (that's us, folks!) and brag about his successfully masterminded attack on our soil on Sept. 11, 2001? Do all the victims' families feel as eager to provide him a forum for his evil diatribe? This trial will be watched around the world.

Forget hope and change; victimization is in. Dropped by the president and dismissed as a racist by many Americans, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright still draws crowds with his sometimes crotch-grabbing, always riveting soliloquies about black oppression. The former pastor of Barack Obama drew thousands last week to the 8,000-member Empowerment Temple in Baltimore City. Overflow lots at the church were filled, and five blocks on either side of the massive stadium-like stucco building in Park Heights - a part of town where Orthodox Jews mix sometimes uneasily with blacks - were wall to wall with cars.

JERUSALEM -- Israel -- alone in the region -- quickly applauded last night the U.S. bombings in Afghanistan and Sudan, but others in the Middle East predicted the attacks would only increase anti-American sentiment in the region.And the leader of the militant Islamic fundamentalist group Hamas threatened retaliation in Israel.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed the U.S. decision to strike terrorist installations in Sudan and Afghanistan, according to statement from the prime minister's office.

I read Tuesday's rant from that un-American, left-wing socialist Marta Mossburg, criticizing the free market and capitalism, and I am outraged ( "Turns out Google's free e-mail is worth every penny," Nov. 23). How dare "comrade Mossburg" criticize Google for providing a free e-mail service! Doesn't she know Google is the biggest Internet company in the world? The free market has spoken, and Google is clearly divinely sent by Jesus and Ronald Reagan to deliver us from the evils of the socialist Democrats and their godless, secret Muslim leader Barack Hussein Obama.

SEOUL, South Korea - In a case that has sparked the largest anti-American rallies seen here in years, an Army sergeant was acquitted yesterday in a U.S. military court of criminal negligence in the deaths of two South Korean girls who were crushed by a 50-ton armored vehicle. Sgt. Fernando Nino, the vehicle's commander, was found not guilty of negligent homicide in the deaths of Shim Mi-son and Shin Hyo-soon, both 14, who were hit on a narrow road north of Seoul. Today, a military jury will hear the case of the vehicle's driver, Sgt. Mark Walker.

KABUL, Afghanistan - Thousands of Muslims, from Gaza to Pakistan to Indonesia, emerged from prayer services yesterday to join Afghans in rapidly spreading protests over the reported desecration of a Quran by American interrogators at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. In Afghanistan, at least eight people were killed and more than 40 hurt, bringing the death toll over four days of anti-U.S. rioting to at least 16, with more than 100 injured. For the first time, a policeman was killed. Three protesters were killed and 23 people wounded as the police grappled with a crowd of more than 1,500 in Baharak, in far northeastern Badakhstan, the police chief of the province, Gen. Shah Jehan Nuri, said in a telephone interview.

It's patriotic to protest rush to war Instead of addressing the reasonable challenges put forth by the anti-war movement, Mona Charen is stunningly thoughtless and petty in dismissing it as anti-American and comprised of communist sympathizers ("Marching against America," Opinion Commentary, Jan. 27). Not only is it safe to declare communism long since dead, but one need only look to the likes of conservative luminaries such as Brent Scowcroft, Henry Kissinger and Rep. Dick Armey to find other voices who have expresses doubts about this war. The anti-war movement's motivations are rooted in a love for America and for the ideals it stands for, not in hate.

THREE U.S. SERVICEMEN are in Japanese custody, charged with the rape of a 12-year-old girl on Okinawa. It is not the first such atrocity; it will not be the last, given the tensions bound to arise when 27,000 young Americans are concentrated on an overseas island. U.S. bases sprawl over 20 percent of Okinawa's land area and are home to 60 percent of the U.S. forces stationed in Japan.These figures should be kept in mind in assessing the outrage that erupted after U.S. authorities waited 25 days before handing over the accused servicemen once they had been indicted.

ARLINGTON, Va. -- In the race to the bottom for votes to win office, or to preserve themselves in office, it would be difficult to outrun Republicans as they pander to the Hispanic vote by refusing to control our southern border against an invasion by millions of illegal aliens. Democrats are trying, and they may soon pass Republicans in their cynical pursuit of political power. At the Democrats' winter meeting, a clergyman was asked to deliver the invocation. He was Husham Al-Husainy of the Karbalaa Islamic Education Center, a Shiite mosque in Dearborn, Mich.

If the United States is the world's only superpower, as some are fond of calling it, many people around the world are going to hate, fear and despise it -- not only for what it does, but also for what it fails to do and for what it may have had nothing to do with.In Somalia, the clan military leader Mohamed Farah Aidid objects to U.S. success in feeding people and supporting reconciliation, which undercuts his act. He has maneuvered U.S. forces into conflict with the subclan clinging to his protection.

I wonder if President Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder have given any thought to the costs, both emotional and financial, of providing terrorist "suspect" Khalid Sheikh Mohammed a stage on which to spew his hatred for American infidels (that's us, folks!) and brag about his successfully masterminded attack on our soil on Sept. 11, 2001? Do all the victims' families feel as eager to provide him a forum for his evil diatribe? This trial will be watched around the world.

WASHINGTON -President Barack Obama, rejecting former Vice President Dick Cheney's contention that Obama has put the United States at greater risk of terrorism, suggests in an interview airing today on 60 Minutes that the previous administration's stance was an "advertisement for anti-American sentiment." "How many terrorists have actually been brought to justice under the philosophy that is being promoted by Vice President Cheney?" Obama asks. "It hasn't made us safer," Obama says. "What it has been is a great advertisement for anti-American sentiment."

In Papua New Guinea," a woman said to my wife when we were in that country recently, "we used to look up to the United States, see it as our father, our model. Now we are afraid of the United States. What has happened is very sad." As Americans who have been living abroad for the past four months, we could not help but agree that what has happened to our nation's image around the world is indeed very sad. But while America's reputation in the world has suffered great harm in recent years, the damage is not irreparable.

ARLINGTON, Va. -- In the race to the bottom for votes to win office, or to preserve themselves in office, it would be difficult to outrun Republicans as they pander to the Hispanic vote by refusing to control our southern border against an invasion by millions of illegal aliens. Democrats are trying, and they may soon pass Republicans in their cynical pursuit of political power. At the Democrats' winter meeting, a clergyman was asked to deliver the invocation. He was Husham Al-Husainy of the Karbalaa Islamic Education Center, a Shiite mosque in Dearborn, Mich.

Anti-American messages deride valiant efforts Reading The Sun last Sunday, I was struck by the juxtaposition between the lock-step anti-American message of the plays reviewed in the Arts & Society section ("Three plays march toward the same message," July 17) and the Parade magazine article "When can we leave Iraq?" with its positive message (July 17). I wonder if my grandfather would have been able to fight mass murderers as an infantryman in World War II if public sentiment - at least that of the people getting the headlines - was as anti-American then as it is now. For instance, one of the playwrights, Cuban-American Melinda Lopez, writes of an immigrant mother who will never forgive her son, a newly minted U.S. Marine, for going to war. The theme of all three plays is disgusting.

KABUL, Afghanistan - Thousands of Muslims, from Gaza to Pakistan to Indonesia, emerged from prayer services yesterday to join Afghans in rapidly spreading protests over the reported desecration of a Quran by American interrogators at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. In Afghanistan, at least eight people were killed and more than 40 hurt, bringing the death toll over four days of anti-U.S. rioting to at least 16, with more than 100 injured. For the first time, a policeman was killed. Three protesters were killed and 23 people wounded as the police grappled with a crowd of more than 1,500 in Baharak, in far northeastern Badakhstan, the police chief of the province, Gen. Shah Jehan Nuri, said in a telephone interview.

SARS, the war in Iraq and worldwide terrorist threats are keeping some people from going abroad, but not Elliott Hester. The longtime flight attendant and author of Plane Insanity: A Flight Attendant's Tales of Sex, Rage and Queasiness at 30,000 Feet embarked in October on an open-ended round-the-world adventure. Starting from his home port in Miami, Hester moved west on a global route that allows for a "perpetual summer." Along the way, he is sending back "Continental Drifter" dispatches, which are being syndicated in newspapers and also are available on his Web site, www.elliotthester.

WASHINGTON - A peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians reached with help from the United States would deprive Islamic extremists of perhaps their strongest anti-American arguments and have a therapeutic impact on the strained relations between Washington and traditional European allies such as France and Germany, regional analysts say. The Palestinian issue has always been the "Rosetta stone," the key to unlocking the puzzle, of the Arab-Israeli...

WASHINGTON - The worldwide spotlight on the abuse and torture of Iraqi prisoners has undercut America's moral authority abroad, particularly in the Arab world, compounding the damage to the country's reputation caused by the invasion of Iraq and a widely perceived heavy-handedness in waging the war on terrorism, commentators say. Anti-American sentiment was on the rise well before pictures of naked and hooded Iraqis revealed a sadistic current among at...