To the Editor:

In the last few weeks we’ve seen anti-American sentiment through words and actions in many predominantly Muslim countries throughout the world.  Middle Eastern countries have had particularly loud protests against America.

A video seems to have sparked this most recent outward hatred towards the United States, but the discontent has been there for generations. Any reason to go to the streets and burn American flags or protest outside of a US embassy is always taken advantage of.

Our Ambassador to the UN, Susan Rice in a recent Fox News interview saidthat “This is not an expression of hostility in the broadest sense towards the United States or U.S. policy”. How naïve does she think the US public is?

It is time to overhaul our Foreign Policy. We give away millions of taxpayer dollars each year in economic and military aid to foreign countries, and much of it goes to the bad apples that are protesting in the world today. Why do we continue to insist on a historically flawed plan of trying to buy friends around the world?  History has shown that supporting the Shah of Iran was not a good move. History will show that showering money on Pakistan is foolish as well. Let’s give our money to genuine friends in the world or better yet…let’s keep it at home. Why borrow money from China so that we can send it to countries that in no uncertain terms despise us?

Tony Beane, Canton