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

My personal homepage with trip reports: https://www.krijtenburg.nl/
YouTube channel (that I do together with one of my sons): motormobilist.nl

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

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.

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'.

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

Just going back to your original points and questions:

Yes, Europeans can be jealous of what the States has done and achieved in its short modern history; sometimes this jealousy is by individuals, but more usually it is institutionalised and comes from individual Governments. However, we love you anyway. Many are still coming your way for vacation, travelling with or without a bike - the currency exchange rate is great for us.

No one here seems to disagree: The Brits were the best, ever. In the right place, at the right time and, most of the time, getting in ahead of the others. Then, we would rule in a more or less benign manner, letting the indigenous population do whatever they could manage within their own limited capabilities and technologies.
We just can't hack it anymore. Empires come and go. One of the few times that the French got the better of us was when they helped you guys to force our withdrawal from Yorktown - Cornwallis, our commander, went off to rule and pacify India, which arguably, was a bigger, more important responsibility. Hell, we could not be everywhere, all of the time.
We did manage to burn the Whitehouse though!

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Dave

One reson its so flawed is the monitoring and reporting moving a air monitoring station a mile or so up wind can change you co2 reports not a big deal but you know who has the bigest target on them. A satilite net work can be made to moniter C02 with reports sent to all concerned about who and where the greenhouse gas are coming from.
I know I know we help draw the thing up the administration changes and we dont go threw with it. (Happens with internal laws as well I dont think statistics are around on the loss of this, maybe trillions $ the price of an ego the size leader of the free world.) The reason the USA has not gone along with this in money if the world made it more expensive for the US to continue as it is it will change. The US operates under a free market where cheap = good not where doing good = good its a cold cold system. Western countries coorpertion has never worked as well as it can. 2 world wars and a cold war that still has scars. The EU has just been formed and I was ages in the making. We are going slow but with the EU applying pressure to the US it may move thins along with the new administration.

Well 5 directly control all the American media out right or using corporations and one is German. Now and then a story makes it passed them but not to often
Media Reform Information Center

Kinda we do Electoral College (United States) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
you need 270 votes from the electoral college to win. The popular vote by the people is near meaningless. Oh the president is an American but is almost always from an elite family. You and I share more in common than me and the EL president.

Freedom Fries ARGGG who was it that started that hate the French idea. I hate them! My last name is French got in more than one fight over the French thing, Got some good deals on French wine out of it not a total loss. Never understood what the problem was so the French were making a deal same deals we had going.
Wonder if in WW2 that called hamburgers freedom sandwichs?

Oh they have chopped off more than just USA peoples heads off. But what did we do pre 9/11 to warrant an attack on 2 civilian targets?

But it was Bush who blundered with Iran. Iran gave us Sodom told us right where he was Then Bush gos and calls them the enemy. Dam him.

The then
'Fort America' infuriates Oslo residents - Aftenposten.no
The why page 2 shows it a bit better
9-11-2001
The now
About the Embassy - U.S. Embassy Oslo, Norway
New US embassy on ice - Aftenposten.no
US embassy moves to Huseby - Aftenposten.no
Seems we need to move from the old one
With the bombing on 9/11/01 all US-embassy had security upgrades a bit of over reaction on the policy makers part but the US was at war. The fences was put there because someone half a world away made up some number in feet and said "all US-embassys put a fence up at such and such a feet away" nothing against Norway or its people but all embassys got fortifications. No one wants this eye sore near them it seems.

Burn the Whitehouse? bahh wasnt even done. A wack job shot it up for sport a few years back another ran a plain in to it and the secret service just watched. bums have peed on it I was thinking of pinching my tent up there but dont like the neighborhood.

Brits do do a good job, good thing to you did it a lot. Cornwallis ran a way, buggered right out. What is it with you and the French any way? Still mad that a little French girl ran you out? I know there nasty when they get mad but you got to let it go man.

I don't know about the big white house in any detail: wasn't it timber at the time? - I read somewhere that it burnt pretty well. May be that is why it is built of stone now?

Cornwallis: battle was an occupation of gentlemen with some elements of chivalry on the field, so it was a "draw" enforced via a French naval blockade. Having surrendered to the French (but not to those colonial rebels) the gentlemen would withdraw in good order.

The French: that goes back to at least 1066 and the battle that brought those bastard Normans to England, just as King Harold had his back turned dealing with the Viking invaders coming out of Scandinavia and attacking York (that's the original York of course). Harold did a pretty good job overall, but he fought on two fronts, consequetively (very nearly concurrently, even by todays' standards of logistics and transport infrastructure) - that sounds familiar to today!
Never mind Joan, don't neglect Crecy and Agincourt in the equation.
Nowadays, the Brits have been buying up property in France and integrating into their social life - the bloodline will always be well mixed!

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Dave

We like jokes:-

An American Tourist In London

An American tourist in London decides to skip his tour group and explore the city on his own. He wanders around, seeing the sights, occasionally stopping at a quaint pub to soak up the local culture, chat with the locals, and have a pint of bitter.

After a while, he finds himself in a very nice neighbourhood with big, stately residences. No pubs, no stores, no restaurants and, worst of all, no public restrooms.

However, after all those Guinnesses, he really has to go. He finds a narrow side street, with high walls surrounding the adjacent buildings and decides to use the wall to solve his problem.

As he is unzipping, he is tapped on the shoulder by a London bobby, who says, "Sir, you simply cannot do that here, you know."

"I'm very sorry, officer," replies the American, "but I really have to go, and I just can't find a public restroom."

"Ah, yes," said the bobby, "just follow me".

He leads the American through a back delivery alley to a gate, which he opens.

"In there," points the bobby, "whiz away sir, anywhere you like."

The fellow enters and finds himself in the most beautiful garden he has ever seen. Manicured grass lawns, statuary, fountains, sculptured hedges, and huge beds of gorgeous flowers, all in perfect bloom. Since he has the policeman's blessing, he relieves himself and feels much more comfortable.

As he goes back through the gate, he says to the bobby, "That was really decent of you. Is that what you call English hospitality?"

"No, sir." replied the bobby. "That is what we call the French Embassy."

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Dave