A non-American, I grew up during the Cold War, wayyyyy back when Americans were still the Good Guys, still denouncing Soviet 'secret prisons' in eastern Europe - instead of running them, still condemning Hitler's torture chambers - instead of running them, still demanding that war criminals stand trial - instead of whitewashing their own war crimes. Today, Americans must go out of their way to find a single tiny state where the very name 'American' isn't synonymous with 'war pig' and 'fascist.' Sad.

God Bless America.

According to you, what are the reasons, if any, for this drastic change?

P.S., Can we consider the lack of fairness in U.S. policy regarding the ME, which has always been in favor of Israel, as one reason among others?

I'm not the original poster, but I'd like to start the list...

1. We actually have always been kind of bad guys. However, since we've started throwing our international weight around, we've had the British Empire, the Nazis, Japan before we bombed the rambunctiousness out of them, or the Sovs to make us look good in comparison. Now, all we've got is the PRC, who are possibly more evil to their own citizens than we are to ours, but don't really throw their weight around internationally on anywhere near the same scale as we do.

2. The previous administration had no talent for PR whatsoever. I'll leave a more comprehensive list of the lacks of the previous adminstration to someone else, but I don't think even the most dogged of GOP stalwarts would dispute that Messrs. Bush, Cheney, and many of their subordinates lacked either the ability or the interest in forming a global consensus and accepting the bounds on the freedom of behavior that such a consensus would require.

3. We haven't liberated anyone from a foreign occupyer in quite some time. I would bet that many Kuwaitis are pro-American. However, we've been the invader far more than the liberator since the start of the 90s.

USA=Fascist Police State

Wrong, very wrong.

America liberated all ex communist countries.

And don't forget Kosovo. They are the populations that suffered for a century under the occupation, with four attempts of ethnic cleansing, each with thousands slaughtered (1913, 25,57,99).

Americans should go overseas to see the difference, and not watch what argue the people who don't have a clue what freedom and democracy means.

We liberated Belarus? Hmmm, I must have missed the footage of our tanks in Minsk. Here, I thought it was the Sovs who basically gave up their empire, and then, a couple of years later, their system of government. As far as Kosovo goes, we bombed the shit out of one faction to stop them from forcing out another faction in a civil dispute. I'll posit, for the substance of this discussion, that it was laudable. OK, so there's another 700,000 people in the world that we might have liberated.

I'll freely stipulate that 20-30% of the world is pro-American. It's still way off the numbers in 1985 or 1965 or 1945.

Brainwash, regardless of your anti semitc leanings, just answer this. How many Jews are in Hollywood and Washington DC, including Congress? How many muslims? Do you get it yet?

Americafirst:

Brainwash, regardless of your anti semitc leanings, just answer this. How many Jews are in Hollywood and Washington DC, including Congress? How many muslims? Do you get it yet?

Don’t you want to grow up yet?

You are either a real ignorant; or, you are about to become one! You still can not distinguish between a Jew and an Israeli as you do when you take each Arab for each Muslim! What’s your problem? I wonder if issues related to the Middle East make it always that the truth should morph into anti-Semitic!