illumined horizon

Polls such as this don't particularly mean a whole lot in my opinion. I happen to think it's a legitimate criticism that other nation's citizens have of Americans, that they like the American people and not American foreign policy. I have been strongly against American foreign policy ever since I came to understand it. These polls tend to over simplify issues, of course, American foreign policy is at least part of the motivation for Muslim extremism; while many other factors play a role, probably one of the least important is the oft-trumpeted "they hate our way of life". This line is a great camouflage for the real motivations to hate and kill Americans that have motivated Islamic terrorism. To face the real issues that inspire Al Qaeda and its allies is to question to much of an entrenched foreign policy worldview that has dominated the presidency for decades.