Americans buy a lot of gasoline, and if the price were to double or triple suddenly, we'd want to riot.
And you can see the difference in fuel prices between the US and Europe. You say it's the same supply, but our prices are pretty much double/triple about what Americans pay for the same thing. Any US candidate running for office who would even
mention increasing fuel prices just won't get elected.
The thing is, I don't mind that America uses their military for protecting their trade and resources. I understand it perfectly, but the issue is with the arrogant notion of 'policing the world'. America only polices something when it's to their benefit. If they were fighting global injustice, where is their protection of Tibet against the Chinese occupation? Because Tibet doesn't have any resources that America can use, and America is on the side of China, who is a trade partner to the US (among other things).
So, America should get off its high horse of moral superiority about how necessary they are policing the world. The world knows that Americans don't lift a finger unless it's profitable to Americans. You think they fought in Afghanistan because they want to help the Afghan people? No, it's because they didn't want the poppy fields to fall into the hands of the Soviets. So now Afghanistan is back to being ruled by the Taliban.
Ironically the US is the biggest producer of oil in the world as well.
And... if that were true, why the hell do they need foreign oil? They produce the most
gasoline. They ran out of oil. And they have to get it in Iran and other oil producing countries. You cannot pretend they are doing this for non-Americans. Every thing America does under the guise of policing the world benefits solely the Americans.
America's 'world policing' didn't help the Koreans, or the Vietnamese, or the Iraqis or the Afghans or anyone in the other conflicts they meddled in. America helps Saddam Hussein into power to keep Iraqi oil prices low, then, when Iraq doesn't want to sell oil for the prices America wanted to pay for it, America fabricated a reason (the never found Weapons of Mass Destruction) in order to wage war to protect their oil fields.
I'm sorry, but both your views are myopically American. If you look at American foreign and domestic behaviour from a global perspective, you would see quite another picture. And you would see why America is not that popular anymore as they were right after WW2. American popularity has been on the decline since Vietnam.
And the moment America started bragging about policing the world, what was left of that respect is dwindling fast. Like you said, "You can hate us all you want, but you need us." If you do so much good in the world and you receive that much hate, you might start to wonder why they don't love you for what you're doing.