To be fair, I had been living in the US for more than a decade, and I loved the land and the people (still do). My reason to leave had nothing to do with anything any people there or the US government did; it was a family issue in Europe. However, I see that people there tend to treat anything that happens outside of their own country like a TV show. It isn't "real". The fact that US troops went to some Muslim countries and frivolously killed hundreds of thousands of people there, without any tangible reason, doesn't even reach the minds of many Americans. The families and neighbors of those that have been killed remember though.
This also poisons the US-European relationship at the moment. The European governments never fail to sing the praise of the special transatlantic relationship, because that relationship is convenient. It saves Europe a lot of money (whatever you think of him, Trump is right regarding this specific point). However, the people in Europe see the price for this. You can ask around anywhere you want, but the anti-US sentiments run through all layers of society here. I was actually a bit shocked when I came back how deep this ran. But it's this: in principle, many Europeans see the US behind most of their problems (those related to foreign affairs) at the moment, of course with Muslim terrorism at the forefront (also the Ukrainian crisis and the current economic war with Russia). I don't quite get it, but Putin is relatively well liked. These are tangents though, except in the Syria crisis, where, unlike what European governments said, most people in Europe were relieved at what Putin wanted to achieve.
The main issue is decades of a catastrophically bad Near East policy by different US governments. Iran was a functioning democracy, which was basically destroyed by US meddling, at that time pushed by Britain. In principle, the US is responsible for the government Iran has today. The Taliban are also a US product. Those were financed and pushed to power because of the usual power play between the US and Russia. As much of a scumbag our former chancellor was, I still have some respect for him that he made us reject the request to make war on Iraq. Funny enough, his analysis of the time was spot on. Not only was the reason to go to war fake, he was also right with the point that doing this would hand over Iraq to Iran. Which is what basically happened. Southern Iraq is part of the Iranian influence sphere. The North didn't want to follow suit, so the IS "happened". It's a direct consequence of that ill-conceived war.
By the way, I don't want to white-wash the Europeans themselves here. They bear their share of the fault. Britain wanted to please the US at all times. Poland wanted help against "evil Russia". Our government felt it couldn't say No a second time when Afghanistan came up. Of course, they also had delusions of grandeur. They thought they could apply for a permanent seat in the UN Council (
), and what better way is there to show that you are one of the big boys than to go to some Muslim country and kill some of the natives? Well, it didn't work out. They still represent a leading part of the effort there, and of course that also makes them one of the prime targets for hate from the Muslim side.
The second major mistake the Europeans made is lack of proper integration of those Muslim immigrants that have been coming since the 1960's. Second or third generation immigrants are still treated like foreigners. The older generation were fine with that treatment, because they felt like foreigners themselves. They knew it wouldn't be easy. The young generation though feels that they are owed equal treatment, and they don't get it. That's the main reason why some of them fall for these extremist islamist preachers. They feel wronged and have nothing to lose. There's also those that have been denied immigrant status, but even their own countries don't want to have them back, so they sit there and cannot do anything but brood. Those people become fanatics, but they don't even know anything about their own faith, except the bit of propaganda they were fed.
You may notice that I didn't talk too much about Islam here. I don't think it's an important factor in all of this. Even Al Qaeda, which is a genuine Muslim product, would have never risen without people constantly and casually being wronged by ill-conceived Western policies in the countries of the Near East. Al Qaeda is a Saudi product btw. But those are our friends. Even Donald T.'s.
I don't want to see this mistaken as some anti-American rant. As I said, I still love the land and the people. I see this more as a modern tragedy that has been unfolding for decades now.