The question has peered out to us from the pages of news magazines and newspapers and has been spoken from coast to coast on radio talk shows and personal discussions.

Why do they hate us?

For any man or woman with common sense, that would be among the primary questions to be answered as the United States seeks answers and solutions to the heinous acts that took place Sept. 11, claiming thousands of innocent lives at the World Trade Center and U.S. Pentagon.

President Bush has said "they" hate us because America is a freedom-loving country and "they" can�t stand that we are free.

But the question that many U.S. politicians refuse to openly discuss is whether the anger against America is rooted in her foreign policy. And when the question is brought up, the answer that White House spokesman Ari Fleisher has given is, U.S. policy will remain as it has been. Period.

As much as policy makers like to herald the goodness of America�s generosity�like dropping food while bombing defenseless people in Afghanistan�many poor people recognize the heavy imprint of her policies on their countries that negatively impact their lives.

The blind U.S. support of Israel and her relationship to Palestinians who live in apartheid-like conditions perhaps is at the top of the complaints of many Arab and Muslim nations. But it is just one of the areas to which nations want more balance.

Others despise the unilateral way the United States imposes sanctions and embargoes (or forces the UN to do so) on countries�Cuba, Libya, Iraq, Iran and the Sudan, for example�daring other countries to challenge her authority and penalizing those countries that break the embargoes. The bitterness of others is heightened by the loss of innocent lives and economic hardship caused by such sanctions.

The recent order by President Bush to the C.I.A. to do whatever it takes to kill Osama bin Laden and destroy his al-Qaida network sheds more light on the root of the anger. The oppressed in the "Third World" historically have been suspect of the activities of the covert U.S. agency in their countries. Many still harbor anger at C.I.A.-supported coups of legitimately elected or popular leadership and the hypocritical U.S. support of authoritarian rulers or outright brutal dictators while promoting the benefits of "democracy."

Until the Sept. 11 attacks, the American public generally was uninterested and ignorant of U.S. foreign policy and its impact. Now it is a topic they want to know about.

The Bush administration must put its foreign policy on the table for review if it truly wants to get accurate answers for the Sept. 11 bombings. Also, it must dialogue in an open and frank way with Arab and Muslim countries and seek truthful answers, not in the way it is doing�buying the support of Muslim governments in exchange for debt relief, weapons or other favors. While these government officials may support the U.S., many of their citizens may not.

Bombing Afghanistan and expanding the war to other Muslim countries will not secure America from terrorism. Empowering the C.I.A. to do what it has covertly done over the last 50 years and giving them one billion extra tax-payer dollars to do it won�t secure America.

Telling the truth and balancing U.S. policy so it does not trample on the legitimate aspirations of peoples of developing countries will go a long way in getting life in America back to normal.