I shouldn't touch this with an Atlantic-length pole, but here's a misleading headline if I ever heard one: Survey: Europeans Say U.S. Partly to Blame for 9/11. The actual question was whether U.S. foreign policy, not Americans in general, was partly to blame. Either way, it simplifies the hell out of the issue, which is way too tricky for a yes/no poll.

Here are statements I believe are true:

• U.S. foreign policy is often offensive by the standards of the rest of the world.
  
• U.S. foreign policy is definitely partly to blame for the fact that much of the rest of the world doesn't like Americans very much.
  
• However, one of the things the terrorists got wrong is something every country gets wrong with every war: killing a country's people is a misguided way to express displeasure with a country's government.
  
• So go ahead and blame U.S. foreign policy when people of other countries hate us. Blame religious fundamentalism and psychosis when people express that hatred by flying planes into buildings full of people whose individual beliefs they don't even know.
  

And for proof that most of the world can separate the policy from the people, go here. I was in Hamburg at the time. It was really like that.