I dont mean any thing about this and its a little tung in check but why do Europeans bash the USA? They dont like, the politics, the people, the war mongering, the food, hell any thing.

When I look at the people responsible for all the things they dont like the people all seem to come from Europe at one time or another. Being part native American (agen a European word for a place you did not own) I dont get it.

The USA is bad for empire building but what European nation dose not. The sun never sets on the british empire. "We" eat up all the resources seem to me most people I see doing that are white from a North Europe. Near my home theres a place where English and French had log booms set up to take trees from here to Europe. (Funny there still called English boom and French boom) The USA was used for its resources by Europeans after they used up theres. Then when some Europeans dint get more you fought with each other French and Indian war (7 year war what the last 100 year one not enof ?) draging my "tribe" in to it (tribe why not Nation we had land laws an army there all gone now to)

Gust from my point of view its still a bunch of rich White Norther Europeans stealing stuff thats not theres. I mean the USA is good and stealing stuff but nothing like Great Britain dam your the best!


Gust something to think about.

The USA "bashing" has nothing to do with history but with the way the US government is acting now. I have been to the US and almost all the people I met, white, black or native Americans, were very friendly people that I like to meet again.

I won't discuss the wars with enemies of the US but what is a problem to me is the way the US treats friends. If I go to the US now, I have to have my fingerprints and picture taken. They need a lot of "private" information that they keep for a long time before I can enter a flight to the US. Because the US government considers all "foreigners" as potential terrorist they treat me as a criminal. That is not the best way to make friends. I rather spend my money somewhere else and wait for a new US governement that does not treat their friends as criminals before I visit the US again.

If you read the travel reports on the HU site and other sites, you will notice that all over the world, the "normal" people are friendly. It is governments and political and religious leaders that make the problems. The problem that a lot of Europeans have with the US is not the people of the US but the government !!

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Jan Krijtenburg

My bikes are a Honda GoldWing GL1200 and a Harley-Davidson FXD Dyna Super Glide

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Some people who havnt travelled to the US percieve Americans to be idiots. Your president doesnt do much to help with this.

But after many visits and some good friends in the US I have to say there are plenty of English who love youre country.

You have loads of space, with amazing scenery and at the moment its a country where I can still afford to fill up the tank on a car.

Americans used to be percieved as Fat but you only have to take a look at the average Brit to see that there are plenty of Fat wasters here too.

I have found the US has plenty of healthy eateries and supermarkets.

I like the way you can go to Walmart and buy anything including guns ?

Guns yes we have them in England too its just that over here they are heavily licienced, which results in all the scum bags getting them illegally.

Over here if someone breaks into your house armed with a weapon you end up locked up if you harm them while they rob you blind.

So take it from me we dont all hate Americans.

Just one thought though why do Yanks think all us Brits have bad teeth ?

I will swap the M1 for Highway 1 any day of the week.

Well America has a history of electing bad governments, I think this reflects on the population as a whole however I found americans to be great people once you look past all the bullsh** (i.e. Britney Spears sightings).

I don't think anyone in the world competes with americans in customer service, read that somewhere so they are amongst the nicest too!

I understand what you are saying DLBiten, but please don't take it personally. Other posts have already said that nations don't have friends, they have only interests - political, diplomatic etc etc.

Right enough, Britain was pretty good in its day: so was Spain, France and Holland to name a few others (don't forget the Romans) - all gone now and the USA is top of the pile, at present.
Somewhere in the future the USA will decline (and fall?), just as Rome did, and we will be looking at a "new kid on the block" - could be China or India or ... (fill in your own idea) ....

ps I have never really forgiven those Mongol hordes out of Asia! but, Mongolia is not what it was.

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Dave

Yeah, but what did the Romans ever do for us....apart from Aquaducts, sewers, roads.......

Andy

as said previously, people are agains politics and the -isms like communism, capitalism, socialism... etc.. and now a days the trend is american-ism- and many people agains that actually the way that america threats. on the tele, in the newspapers we are seeing/watching how the american army act or behieve to the local people wherever they invate, or we are seeing watching how american bureaucrats manupilate the oil prices or the stock markets. if you go further you can read or see how the intelligent services of america produce and apply the conspirasy teories all over world.

people are agains the things which i have written above and not particulary american citizens. i have met lots of americans who went iran, middle east, etc. and no one had and problem. they are not agains americas richness or your wealth. they just want to have their normal life before america puts its hand on their soil or economy or people or biringing democracy.

maybe all these are the first rule of being the "world leader" just like ottomans, romans, ussr, uk (still) did earlier. i am not sure of that, but, what i am sure about this is the world we are living and there is only one world that we "must" share.

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ozhan u.
website under construction

Have you read a few newspapers the last years, or visited some countries in the Middle East? Is Kyoto a Japanese dish?

That depends on where you are and other circumstances. In Sheffield (SOME) of the local police have realised that they are utterly powerless to do anything to protect us, so you can do some real damage to a known criminal without them following it up, just claim 'self defence'...

The thing that gets me with the USA isn't the people (everywhere has good and bad, and the UK seems to be filling with scum) but the way that the government twists the people's thoughts - anybody actually read the US foriegn policy relating to what they call 'Unilateral Multilaterism', (produced by the Bush-Cheney "think-tank" the whole document is a complete farce and if you deconstruct it and reproduce it as a fact by fact statement of policy (as it should be, transparent) it is the most aggressive foriegn policy since 1938!!!
It basically states that America wishes to have a global military presence, that the military capability of ALL other countries should be reduced to near zero (as we don't need our own army if the yanks have occupied and are 'looking after us'), and the best bit - the cost of providing global stability through unilateral multilaterism should be borne by all countries. This sounds just like a global protection racket with no joint body having any say in how the system is administered. We already have a UN and an agreed way to behave - which the USA pays absolutely NO attention to!!!

The world doesnt hate the American people, but your government should be 'the first against the wall when the revolution comes'.

I believe that was Lord Salisbury, Queen Victoria's last Prime Minister (8/10 for being pedantic I think?)

Some years ago I read an article based on a coversation between Clive James (Australian humourist, journalist, essayist and all round smart arse) and P J O'Rourke (US, similar). Apart from wondering what one has to do to get to wait on that table for a day, one comment from Clive James struck me; he said that any former colony or part of empire would always blame their former rulers for any problems, so some constantly half drunk occer (sp?) in a string vest who has never worked a day in his life and spends all his benefits on booze is (of course) poor because of the British, nothing to do with his own choices. He went on to speculate that there must be a similar character somewhere (probably Cappadocia), identical in all respects bar the string vest, who blames the Romans for his problems.

The US will not be top dog for ever, and when someone else takes over (I think India rather than China, but I have no better basis for that than anyone else), it will all become their fault. In the same way that the worst whingers are often the ("we") Brits, because we were last top dogs and lost our place to the Yanks*, so the US will take over as chief whingers at whoever knocks them off their perch.

*Harold Macmillan (UK PM in the late 50s) saw Britain's role as being "Greece to their Rome". Totally irrelevent, but an intersting attempt to salvage some self respect out of relegation.

Accuracy is never pedantry......but the caricature of working class people "in a string vest etc" is not pleasant, and smacks of Daily Mail editorial........?

*This was MacMillan's failed attempt at recovering dignity, I think, and very much in his patrician mode which was dying on its feet; MacMillan failed, like all his class, to read which way the wind blew. Remember at that time Britain had lost an Empire and failed to find a role. We were bankrupted by the war and had begun paying back the US for every bomb, breakfast and bullet we were supplied. Of course we liberated Europe, but we remained skint by this policy of payback until about 2 years ago...shocking really. Not that I defend Empire, neither an Imperial one nor a dollar one.

No-one I know dislikes US citizens, only their government's foreign policy, which is actually criminal.

In my defence, the quote about the string vest etc was by Clive James - I think it does succeed in capturing a character even though there is (as with all generalisations) a risk of offence. I'd present Harry Enfield's characters as similar examples.

Although I agree with you that people do not dislike US citizens, only their government, many comments are made that do not make that clear. I can't recall the context and am supposed to be working so I can't spend time searching, but I remember a comment by you that appeared to hold a Brit currently living in the states responsible for US foreign policy for no better reason than him living there. Even those who voted for Bush may have had valid reasons; the choice was between him and Gore in 2000, and one must wonder what would have happened had it gone the other way. I fear it would not have been good, probably at least as bad, but different.

I'm afraid there are also people who simply refuse to see the distinction between people and government - whether that is blaming the German people for Hitler or a Zimbabwean colleague for Mugabe. I don't know if it is possible to reach such people and I no longer try - I am old and only have so much time left. and I'd rather spend it with people who have at least a little common sense. One could argue the world would be a better place if I made the effort every time., because I might make one such see sense, and thus reduce the volume of prejudice in the world, but I am just too lazy.

Mark - the number of people whjo have little or no clue in the world seems to be rising, trying to reason with them is the classic unmovable object - no matter how unstoppable (read true) the logical and ethical argument is there is no getting through to them

I get the same thing on a smaller scale with random louts pushing me about in the street (because I currently work as a Pizza delivery driver on a moped, and am therefore visually identifiable as being on the lowest rung). I tried to reason with the last two and point out their error, but to no avail so the next one is getting a motorcross boot in the crotch.

Unfortunately there isn't a boot in the world big enough to kick the US foreign policy (which as Cam stated earlier is in clear breach of international law). Home-made nuke anyone?

If its a breach of international law why has not any one brought the US up on charges? Id like to see it then we can get some one good to vote for.
I cant vote for any one for the US president there all crap. Nuking a US city killing 100,000s of people that have done nothing wrong seems like a bad idea to me. And anyway its not the making it that the problem its the stuff to make it.

UN said alot of things but it almost never backs any of it up. Till the US backs it up. Thats on the UN not the USA. when is the last time any one else in all the Americas sent in 50,000 troops to do anything let alone Sweeden or Norway

Kyoto grate idea but the US I huge with massive population all with most cars getting under 15 MPG we cant make the quotas the writers knew that when they wrote it, a little dig at the USA auto makers. If we where as small and had a population to match we do it. Any ever see nuclear waste dumps in Europe? The Navy hears them dumping in the north Atlantic.

Have you read a few newspapers the last years? have you read the crap that the USA papers print? A hairless dog makes the front page US foreign policy is almost never even talked about. No If i want to wast my time I look at TV.
Visited some countries in the Middle East? Most wont let in some one from the US. The whole death to America, beheadings and burning people alive has me a little down about spending my money there that and my trip planing has gone to hell this last few years doller going down the pooper, losing contracts, and me being depressed.

You know how you say how the BBC is crap I watch it because its sooooo much better than the USA press I watched the US news for 2 hours and only one mention about any foreign news story about how people hate the US . Fat, stupid, and scared thats me! Ok its not im not scared.
Why is the UK paying the US back? make Germany and Japan do it.

As far as who we elect well you cant gust pick any one we only get to pic from 2 a Demcrat and a Republican. now to get to that point they had to back stab and rob there way there. The people they own favers to you will never want to meat at night. There all crooks all of them. So when this rotten sod get to point where he or she is the worst of the sods of there group they spends millions and millions to hid what they have done and buy off people if you can If they cant well you have them killed and buy off the people to say it was a suicide. Now if your worst you side can find but not smart enof whipe your own ass you win your side. now you make like your clean as winter snow and holyer than God all the while tossing poop at the other sides Sod trying to act like you hate each other when you have know each other for years and years and your spawn go to the same privet school each other (your kids go to a good school while the future canon fodder are shitted down with drugs) Then the Big Vote! Now if you have the right people owing you can gust win! Well the US people vote but do you realy think people count all the votes? do you want sit up for days counting them all no what you do feel how big the bribe in your hands that has the say on who wins. Now because it a government you dont want to trust real people you make up a Electoral College and there vote is what you realy count. Dam foolish but true. Then your crowned the Biggest Bastard Sod in all the world! But being half brain dead you get a bunch people around you that do all real decision making all this for a Job that pays a hell lot less than the one you gave up to get in to public stealing.
I have no delusions about my government.
Oh yes how I love to see the people I get to vote for!
Not all brits have bad teeth gust fun to piss you brtis off ask the French they will tell you.
I think the EU will be the new overlords. lets start now!
EU you need to fix the mid east and china and SA dam poor lot down there.

I think the post above highlights many of the reasons why people are anti-America.

The apparent ignorance of events outside their own shores, the banality of most of the media, the unwillingness to dig deep and make changes over environmental issues, the surprising lack of irony, the bastardisation of the English language. Then there's the apparent arrogance, and the idea that Americun is best.

Oh and your cars are mostly big, fat, ugly, gas guzzling and poor at going round corners.



I'll go and eat my cheese.

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