Why do they a.) hate, b.) fear, c.) envy, d.) resent US?

In the aftermath of the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks, our heartache for the victims and their families is sometimes mixed with heartburn in seeing pictures of mobs in other countries cheering the devastation, chanting anti-American slogans and burning the American flag.

"Why do they hate us?" That is the lingering question in our minds. Growing up on three continents and as an eager student today of culture here and elsewhere, I have long pondered this question. Hearing the question asked so widely now gives a new context to an incident many years in my past.

I was a student at an international school in Bogota, Colombia. My classmates were a mix of young people from families of upper-middle-class or wealthy Colombians, American expatriates and foreign diplomats.

At basketball practice one afternoon, an American teammate exploded in tears and rage. A Colombian teammate had taunted him with the term "gringo" and various other put-downs about his being American.

My American friend screamed that in five years of living in Bogota, he had learned to speak the language flawlessly, tried his utmost to live and think like a Colombian and was the last person in the world to act like a gringo. The barbs from our Colombian teammate pushed him over the edge, and all his pent-up frustration in being treated as a gringo teenager in Colombia burst out in conflagration.

Any American who has lived abroad for a length of time, particularly as a young person interacting daily with nationals, will empathize with my friend's feelings. It seems that anywhere in the world, there is no more favored target of insult than an American. In the intervening 40 years, it hasn't gotten any better.

Anti-American sentiment abroad wears many faces, from innocuous envy to deadly hatred.

At the harmless end of the spectrum is the envy brought on by the United States' pre-eminent wealth and might. Anyone who has been king of the hill for very long will find others cheering his occasional stumble or trying to knock him off outright. Arrogance, real or imaginary, adds combustion to emotion.

Americans living and working abroad or traveling the globe as tourists do not fare well in dispelling negative stereotypes. Most -- my American teammate being a rare exception --are unskilled at "wearing native clothes," an idiomatic expression used in some Latin countries to describe a foreigner's ability to blend in by speaking the local language or understanding and appreciating local culture and customs.

Move along the spectrum a notch and you encounter resentment at the pervasive spread of American pop culture. Travel in remote regions of Thailand, Brazil or Zimbabwe, and you soon discover there is no corner anywhere in the world that has escaped the reach of satellite television propagating, through CNN news, "Baywatch" reruns and all the attendant commercial advertising, America's particular gospel of material wealth, sexual license and instant-gratification consumerism.

The French, who measure our intellectual sophistication by Disney World and our cuisine by McDonald's, are in a class by themselves for their disdain of American culture. Most others around the world find themselves culturally crushed by the steamroller of Hollywood movies and television shows, unable to prevent their young people from wearing American-style clothing or listening to rock or rap music.

Farther along the spectrum, resentment evolves into fear.

America did not invent the temptations of material wealth and sexual freedom. These have forever been part of the human condition. But ideas such as representative democracy, individual freedom and societal pluralism have either sprung forth or come into their own in this modern era. These are America's most powerful exports and pose the greatest threat to authoritarian or extreme fundamentalist societies anywhere in the world.

There are no tariffs or trade barriers to keep out such exports. A satellite dish, a VCR or an Internet connection will open the spigot and out will flow a stream of the worst and the best of Americana.

The recurring nightmare of ideological and religious despots and their followers is not the seductive pull of America's wealth and sex but the irresistible allure of America's ideas.

The only way those despots can turn their people against America's ideas is to persuade them that America does not live up to those ideals. Thus, it is ironic that a favorite weapon in their ideological war against America is often America itself. They use every means at their disposal to persuade their people that America's great ideals of liberty and equality actually produce high crime rates and racial injustice domestically and a foreign policy that oppresses weaker nations and peoples.

U.S. foreign policy is, indeed, the wild card that can drive the various sentiments in the anti-American spectrum in the wrong direction. There are not many countries around the world that do not hold some historical grudge or other founded on U.S. foreign policy.

Colombians, for example, have long memories of Teddy Roosevelt's bullying tactics, which meant their loss of Panama and Colombia's position of pre-eminence in the hemisphere, gained during the glory days of Simon Bolivar.

History aside, in our lifetimes, U.S. foreign policy has operated on the doctrine of national interest. Few Americans would question that as sound doctrine. Most Americans also believe our foreign policy, beginning with the Marshall Plan after World War II, reflects a certain magnanimity toward other nations.

But to Latin Americans, Asians, Europeans and even Canadians, the U.S. foreign policy of the past 50 years is not so much national interest as self- or selfish interest. Ask anyone abroad who has some understanding of the international political scene, and nine of 10 will tell you that America cares only about America.

Those same respondents will also tell you that U.S. foreign policy is fundamentally based on the preservation and enhancement of America's business and financial interests, often to the detriment of the same interests of other nations.

America's Mideast policy is the most glaring example cited by others. U.S. policy-makers might speak of Israel's security and other altruistic aims, but other than Israel, the rest of the Mideast world sees America as caring only about one thing: oil. They are convinced that for that one obsession, America is willing to trample on any political or religious sensibilities that stand in her way.

Muslims in particular accuse the United States of deliberately sowing and nurturing political instability in the region so the Arab world will always be divided. In their minds, America's greatest fear is that a united Arab world will hold the United States hostage over oil supply and prices.

Their perception of American hypocrisy makes U.S. policy even harder to swallow. America speaks of promoting democracy and human rights, but in practice, the Muslim world sees the United States picking among an array of authoritarian regimes, supporting one while trying to topple another.

Herein lie the causes that push envy, resentment and fear far along the spectrum into deep-seeded hatred. Throw extremist religious fundamentalism into the mix, and all the ingredients are there for deadly confrontation.

Nothing can or will ever justify the deliberate and horrifying killing of thousands of innocent civilians that we saw recently. But the grim reality that Americans must face up to is that as things currently stand, the seeds of discontent planted in the Arab and Muslim world will continue to sprout suicide-minded, coldblooded assassins.

Herein also lies a great paradox. Ask people anywhere in the world, including the Arab world, where they would live, given the choice, and the overwhelming number would name America. America, more than any other country in the world, represents the highest aspirations of men, women and children of every race and nationality, every cultural or religious group, who dream of freedom, opportunity and a better life.

I am sure my Colombian teammate of years past deeply mourns the Sept. 11 attacks because in a very real way, his own sense of security has been profoundly disturbed. For all his resentment toward America, he, like most other Colombians and other Latin Americans of means, regards the United States as the ultimate haven. He may already have immigrated here. If not, I wouldn't be surprised if he already has a second home in Miami or in New York City.

On the Thursday oped page Chi-Dooh Li will propose solutions to improve the United States' standing abroad. Li is a Seattle attorney. E-mail address: CDL@elmlaw.com

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