[haku]

All superpowers are always feared, sometimes hated, it comes with the status. Because other countries are jealous (especially when they used to be superpowers themselves). Because other countries know that whatever they think or say, the superpowers will do what they want and there's nothing they can do about it. Because other countries realize that the superpowers have enough military power to wipe them out overnight.
I know that some Americans are upset that so many people don't like them but don't be, this very fact only shows that you country is indeed the most powerful country in the world. Be glad to live there and not elsewhere, what other people think about you has little value compared to the fact of being a citizen of the most powerful country in the world. And most importantly, what other people think of the US is ultimately useless since it will have no consequences on what the US will do and achieve... you have the power, they only have words.

Originally Posted by bpro50

the nation of Iraq

There is no nation of Iraq, it's a colonial creation. The country is probably going to fall into civil war. The Shiite south will become an islamic republic allied to Iran, the sharia has already been reestablished in some parts of the Shiite region and women have to cover themselves. The Sunnite region will try to become independent as well but the Shiites outnumber them and they will probably control that region as well (including Bagdad). As for the Kurdish north, it's already de facto independent and they are helping Kurdish terrorists (or resistants, it depends if you're pro-Turk or not) to fight the Turkish army.

Iraq had the third most powerful Army in the world under Saddam Hussein

That's a myth. Let's say that the two most powerful armies were the USA and the USSR/Russia. Are we to believe that China or India with both nuclear capabilities and millions of soldiers were less powerful than Iraq? And what about Britain or even Israel which actually defeated the Iraqi army in a previous war? At best Iraq had the second most powerful army in the Middle East after Israel.
During the first Iraqi war, it only took 3 months to the USA to wipe out the Iraqi army (it's estimated that about 150,000 Iraqi soldiers died during the first Iraqi war, which is a reasonable number since 300,000 died during the Iraq/Iran war.), proof that this army was not so powerful.
Western countries knew that very well, they are the ones that had armed and financed this army to contain the Shiite revolution coming from Iran.

who set you free so that you are not influenced by any propaganda?

I'm not, i try to watch American, British, French, and Arab channels to get a more even view, which probably means i'm getting propaganda from all sides, but at least i'm getting more than one view. From what i've seen on American channels, most Americans still believe that the 9/11 hijackers were Iraqis... who told them that?

The world has benefitted by the contributions from the Arabic world but I wouldn't begin to compare contributions with modern day contributions from the west.

My point was not to compare modern Western scientists with Middle Ages Arab scientists. I just wanted to say that the Arab civilization is not evil in essence.

I haven't heard about the Iraqis that died during interrogation.

It was mentioned on the BBC, a CIA "interrogator" is under investigation for several deaths, not everyone knows when to stop torture.