bub

I hope it won't be called the "GySgt/Bub Battlefield"


I'd prefer the others not to post here, but if you have something really interesting to say, feel free to post.

Rules:
1) No propaganda allowed
2) No precise topic. Let's speak about everything.
3) Let's stay civilized.

First post: let's describe each other (that could be funny )

Myself:
-18 years old European guy studying both Political-Sciences and Law in Brussels.
- Political convictions: liberal and ecologist. Strongly pro-European.
- Interests: history, sociology, geopolitics.
- What I love: American*, having fun with friends, reading books under a tree in the Royal Park.
- What I hate: getting up early, people who are boring or too self-confident.
- Favorite meal: Flemish-style carbonnades with belgian fries and Bellevue-Extra.

GySgt
- Ultraconservative veteran very proud of his country
- Political convictions: "realist" movement: military power is what makes a great nation. Strongly anti-European.
- Interests: War on terror, war in Iraq, war in Afghanistan, war on islamism, war on liberals.
- What I love: my M-16, cleaning my M-16, shooting with my M-16
- What I hate: being shown I'm not always 100% right ( )
- Favorite meal: military ration with liberty fries and coke.


Now let's be more serious



Sorry its one hour long. Don't watch the whole thing, it wont be interesting. Just watch this:

5' I told you he liked the USA
15' about France
17' about riots
24' about French social model
35'50" about immigration and riots (listen at 36'40")
41' about Turkey
45’ about the USA and France (47’45”, climate change and Kyoto)
50’ a multi polar world
51’ Iran
51’45 about the USA seen from Europe

You seem to believe that here in Europe, we hate the USA because we refused to go to war in Iraq.

-> but we are with you on several other fronts. We supported you a lot in Kosovo, and you were seen as heroes after the WWI and WWII, and for the typical Belgian we have always been friends.

However, you have a great influence here and even if we like your culture, we have a feeling to be "coca-colonized", with American culture taking the place of our own culture.

Furthermore we believe you made a big mistake with the war in Iraq. We were 100% with you after the 9/11 and with the invasion of Afghanistan, but your unilateral attack of Iraq (and the havoc that grows day and day which seems to prove we were right) broke the "American dream", the feeling that you were the country of freedom, "the goods".

That's sad but from "guardian angel" you became "intolerant cow-boy considering us as Eurotrash". However, we hope that Bush was just a mistake and that the next president will be more friendly with us and also smarter.

__________________
===|:-)

GySgt

Alright. Just to be clear. This is a discussion. Not restricted to a topic definition. We will travel wherever the natural discussion takes us (which is more to my liking). And without the typical propaganda of people that just show up to produce little details of no consequence meant to badger, bash, and inflame.


Umm..no. I have never said that. I have stated that Europeans hate us for a number of reasons and they have all been for events before 2003.


1) In Europe.....

-How many Germans would be living in their promised "utopia" were it not for those infernal meddling Americans?

-How many Italians would be living in their promised "utopia" were it not for those infernal meddling Americans?

-How many Russians would be a citizen of the most powerful country in history were it not for the infernal meddling of Americans?

-And how many anti-Semites in Europe wished Germany was at least given more time to "cleanse" Europe from the "infestation" before those infernal Americans meddled?

2) In Asia....

-How many Japanese would be a part of the most powerful empire in history were it not for the infernal meddling of Americans?

-How much easier would it be to control the Chinese populations if those upstart Americans on the other side of the world didn't serve as a reminder to the people of how much better they could have it?

3) The rest of the world....

-How many dictators or abusive regimes struggle to maintain order and ensure their secured positions as they try in vain to keep the American culture out of their land?

My point is that America has played the role of the "party pooper" for some time. We have created hundreds of millions of haters. Aside from this, we have embarrassed other forms of governments. The American model has shattered the prescriptions of communism, socialism, dictatorship, and religious oppression. We have taken what the French envisioned and pushed it forward with an American ingredient. Every time those damn Americans face down yet another social dynamic, the rest of the world has to hear about it, because it pretty much sets the pace. Consider these issues:

A) Slavery - This issue was tackled with a Civil War. It did not transition naturally. And how many wars in history have been fought to free slaves belonging to another culture?

B) Women - Women weren't emancipated in America until America faced this beast and handled it. It was not allowed to transition naturally. This movement flourished throughout Europe, but was especially energized by the work of women in the United States and Great Britain.

C) Minorities - Where the Civil War freed blacks, society failed them. The Civil Rights Movement forced America to face it and handle it. It was not allowed to transition naturally. Europeans have a history of killing off or expelling their minorities. And Asia has never had an immigrant issue at all.

D) Homosexuals - I believe this is the next step. But when we take it, America will be forced to face it and we will handle it. It will not transition naturally. Which means that the definitions of tolerance will be set. Europeans have done a good job with this. But they have not really addressed it for the world. Like the minority issue, things are left to take care of themselves.

E) Military - Our military isn't the greatest in history because of the money spent. It is so because of the culture. Our military doesn't exist solely for our protection. It exists for others as well. Our military has spent almost a hundred years shattering traditions of tactics, expedience, and basic roles. While we primarily focus on brutally killing the enemy (something many Americans don't realize), we have added the training needs to meet civil issues. The sanctity of civilian life has become the focus in every excursion. We deploy entire units simply to salvage whole populations from natural disaster. We are builders and inventors. We are evacuaters (the 20th century was quite a saga of evacuations by U.S. Marines from communist aggression). While some of our "allies" in Europe are certainly these things as well, they haven't the capability or will to stand a post around the world.

There's not any other country in history that has had the ability to do what we have done and continue to do. We have purposefully pointed at social disfunction and embraced the need for change. We have always pushed through the traditional barriers with a punch. And the rest of the world, especially the non-western world, hates it. It's a shame that our parent nation-Britian-view us more with shame than as an achieving offspring. I believe we are largely hated not for what we do to others, but for what we do for ourselves.

But our new path, with regrads to our activity in Iraq, we sure have ruined a lot of European visions for statecraft and foriegn policies. American too.


No one denies this or cares to. But do you see the common theme in your sentence? Kosovo, WWI, and WWII all involve European lands. Thanks for the support.

This makes absolutely no sense to me. If the "America dream" is supposed to be freedom, then why is this supposed to stop at our doorstep with a special extension towards Eurpoeans? Why is the most powerful nation in history supposed to store its power in a warehouse as the world rips itself apart? Why is it supposed to reserve its blood and treasure for European needs?

And nothing has proven the voices that would protect Saddam Hussein's soveriegnty "right." Who has been proven right are the experts, of whom Rumsfeld denied access toward the planning.

"Intolerant" is actually a good word for us these days. For decades, we have ignored the anti-American theme in your media. We ignored the muggings and beatings American soldiers received in France after WWII. American soldiers have ignored the uncomfortable stares given to them by Germans in local pubs. We have ignored the celebrations by Europeans whenever America proves itself less than perfect in our military excursions (but remain deafly silent about anything that occurred to save Europeans). And American soldiers and Marines have ignored the fact that no matter where we go and whatever European "ally" cares enough to be present, we are the one's in front getting dirty and dying amidst the European criticisms. And all Americans have ignored and even accepted that European televisions are tuned to American business at all times.

But, most of all, I believe I speak for most of my country when I state that we are tired of being looked upon as if we are supposed to define perfection as foreigners tell us what we are supposed to be. We are not in the business of catering to everyone else's visions. We are a nation like anyone else's. We have national interests and people to protect (as well as foreign populations which have prospered by our presence). People that are used to certain lifestyles that have been ensured by our activities abroad (whether some Americans like it or not). For the vast majority of our actions, to include WWII, our action has helped local populations as we ensured our people's freedom. We have ensured free trade, economic strength, and security. Sometimes, that security came with a price that hurt local populations, because like every country in the world, greed and corruption does exist in the "America dream." We have devalued our morality at times for immediate gain and sometimes we did it out of necessity. And this is where our critics swim with great celebration.

Whether people like it or not, we are in a new century now. Long gone are those 40 years where we raced to poor dictators that had their hands out to the Soviet Union. In the absence of Super Power influence and governments that would turn populations into an assembly line, we have the human factor that has been freed. We are going to have to kill the dreamers ("Apocalyptic" Islamic Radicals) and guide the desperately lost. We are going to have to face this in a globalization era of great technological wonder, disasterous weaponry, and furiously paced information pathways. The age of superstition that stirred up so much religous concrete prior to the twentieth century is back. Clinging to the old model of "stability" through the dictator is not the answer. It doesn't matter what man sits in the White House. One may be more extreme than the next and others may refuse it entirely leaving it for another. But Washington will deal with this natural phenomenon for the greater part of this century.

It would be nice if our "allies" stood beside us instead of between us and the Saddam's of the world. But our "allies" are too busy looking for every little imperfection that bears the American flag and every excuse not to help. We are constantly reminded that our efforts around the globe matter for nothing because we conduct oil business with the "House of Saud." We are constantly reminded that we don't do enough according to what they want done. We are constanly reminded that no matter what we do, we didn't do something somewhere else.

Well, it's simple. If it matters so much to Europeans, then why don't they do it?

__________________

GySgt
Semper Fidelis
USMC

bub

Hi!

My answer to your chapter about our supposed hatred:

Look at your link: The American Enterprise: Europe's Anti-American Obsession

Do you think it's true? Do you believe it corresponds to the real american society?

Of course not. Because this is just a compilation of stereotypes and prejudices. Some elements may be right, but that does not match with the society you live in.

Then, look at your post.

Don't you see the similarities?

Everything is negative. We are useless, arrogant, jealous...

Some elements are right, I don't deny it. But that does not match with the society I live in.

What I remark now is that through my posts, you could think we are obsessed by the USA. We don't stop speaking about the war in Iraq and Bush.

No. I do speak about that with you on this forum. But in the "real" life, I don't really care about Bush, the liberals or the conservatives. USA is thousands of miles away and excepted the movies and some songs we don't think so much about you. You should have a look at our newspapers: what do they speak about today? Belgian elections, football, expositions, tennis, they cleaned up the Atomium, the rising prices of houses...we are not really obsessed by the Blackwaters or the number of GIs in Iraq.


What are the reasons? What you wrote below does not correspond.

1) How many Americans would be living in their promised "utopia" were it not for those infernal meddling froggies?
(As you see, this is not really a convincing argument. You can always search for older events in history. With this kind of arguments you can prove everything and I'll ask you to stop with it please.)

2) If the Lusithania had not been sunk in 1917, do you think you would have finally helped us at the very end of the WWI against our German agressors?
And if the Japs had not destroyed half of your Pacific fleet in the very end of 1941, do you think you would have helped us against our agressors?
More generally, do you think your governement is really less self-interrested than the French government?

I don't try to show you are self interested or hegemonic or whatever you want, I try to show that you are not different from all the other democratic countries of this world.

You say "France and Germany haven't done anything useful last 60 years".
Have you ever read Bourdieu, Sartres, Barthes...all those thinkers whose works are studied at every US university? Einstein, Von Braun...without those Germans scientists you would never have been on the moon.


A) Slavery: Arabic and European merchants capturing them in Africa and selling the to their Americna colonies. Forbidden inside Europe from the Xe century. Forbidden in the French colonies from 1794. In the UK colonies in 1833. In the USA in 1865.
As for you war (the Secession War I guess) it was not for another culture, it was for American slaves.

B) Women - Same here. We also have women piloting planes and being ministers. I think I've already written a list with some Belgian women who were very high-placed, such as the president of Senate. In France, a woman is likely to be the next president. Before Hillary. So that's not an anti-European argument.

Blacks were still hanged in Alabama till the 60's. Such a thing has never happened here. Watch the video for further informations about the riots.

D) Homosexuals - where can gays get married legally? Belgium, Netherlands, Spain, Canada and France, (where it is called a "PACS")

E - Military: just look how many trillions you spend in tanks and bombers, then compare with Belgium's Army budgect: €10billions, mainly to send humanitarian aid and deminors in Africa. That's why we couldn't send 50.000 Marines in Afghanistan.

Good point.

My hypothesis is that France and the USA dislike each other because they are too proud of themselves. Both think they are particular, both share the feeling they have a mission to accomplish throughout the world, to spread their ideal of democracy, both are fundamentally linked (?) to some principles such as freedom of speech, both are Republics whose origines come back to the Lumières.

By being similar, they are in fact conccurents, rivals. That could be a source of dislike.

Talk to you soon,

your faithful Bub

bub

Oh and I just forgot this one (be careful I'm proud to have thought about it )

(I write it in red because it's a good one I think)

You say you want to spread democracy. Very good.
However we don't agree on the country.
I asked you "why Iraq", you replied something like "we had to begin somewhere". Bush's argument was "that was a threat", you add "that was a dictature"

But CUBA?

Isn't it a tyranny? Isn't it just a few miles far from Florida?

Now Castro died, and it may turn to a democracy on its own.
But Saddam was also very old and Iraq could have followed the same scenario.

So what is your answer: you, who claim to be a kind of Democratisator, why did you allow a dictature just in front of your nose, during decades, without helping the Cubans?

Billo_Really

Not touching Cuba was part of the deal to get the Soviet ships to turn around. I like to think we keep our word. But as Gy will attest to, I think a lot of things.

Anyway, didn't mean to interrupt...

__________________

"With neocons, it just goes to show, when the
bar is low enough, you can never be too wrong!"

GySgt

You missed my point completely by taking offense to what I stated and trying to turn it around to show American imperfection. The reason I stated the below was to show exactly why elements within the European population (and populations elsewhere) have ill feelings towards those upstarts across the ocean. This isn't some made up idea of mine. There are studies conducted by Europeans that show exactly what I'm talking about.

The French involvement (exaggerated by the French) in the American Revolution (which was just an excursion to kill their long time enemy) has nothing to do with Germans who now feel that their empire in Europe was denied to them by Americans during WWII.

Exceptions do not make the rules. They are called exceptions for a reason. Naming a few scientists as some sort of exoneration from widesweeping gloabl neglect doesn't cut it. You may as well declare the Islamic Middle East as vibrant, peaceful, loving, and pacifist because a few shop keepers spend their days praying and loving their families. Or China as a model for humanity because some Chinese live in luxury.


And what does this have to do with how America dealt with it? What does it have to do with how definitive an American Civil War over slavery had upon the globe?

AND AGAIN.....what does this have to do with the global ramifications of the American Women's Rights movement? Merely mentioning the few women that have achieved beyond what European institutions want doesn't cut it. A female President does not explain away the lack of female officers, CEOs, Mayors, Governors, Senators, or institutional leaders. The list in America would be impossible to pull together, because of the countless representations. The fact thta you have put a list together shows you something doesn't it?

Either way, the emancipation of women is a Middle Eastern issue, not a European one. Why do you insist on defending what is not an issue?

AND AGAIN....what does a handful of hangings in the 60s have to do with the prescriptions set upon the world by the American Civil Rights Movement during that same period? And you are being less than truthful about the statement you made regarding "such a thing has never happened here"....

Jews and other religious minorities had been expelled from or slaughtered by other Europeans even before the Spanish Inquisition. Aside from the obvious holocaust example, the grand mulitcultural experiment in the Soviet Union ended in the devastation of Checnya, in terrorism and massacre. The casual Russian term for the people of the caucasus or Central Asia is chyorno zhophia : "black asses." Read about the Harlem jazz musicians in the 1920's that frequented Paris as exotic pets? The entire twentieth century alone was a sage of genocide and ethnic cleansings:

1) Greeks were driven from Turkey
2) Truks were driven from Greece
3) Chechens were driven from Siberia
4) Poles driven from Germany and Ukraine
5) Germans were driven from Poland and former Czechoslovakia
6) Hungarians scorched from Romania
7) European Jewry was annihilated

The 1990's alone:

1) Serbs butchered Croats
2) Croats drove our Serbs
3) Serbs and Croats evicted Bosnian Muslims
4) Serbs destroyed the homes of Ksovar Albanians

Integration took time in America because the problem was so massive. The numbers were already in the millions by the time of the American Civil War. Europeans long pride themselves on a lack of racial prejudice, but had so few racial minorities that no one felt threatened despite the fact that religious minoroties have been fair game for persecution for a millennium. But to be fair, racial minorities have always been dealt with by expulsion or systematic killings in Europe. The American response to this racial issue in the 60's set the globe on a prescription that denied the traditions that Europe had set the world on long ago. Mentioning some hangings in Alabama and stating that "such a thing never happened in Europe" doesn't quite get to the truth of the issue.

Like I said, Europe has done a fine job with this. But like other issues, they snuck in under radar and without notice. Like Women's emancipation and civil rights, gay rights is a global question that only Amerifa will wind up answering. And there will be plenty in this world that will be angry that their traditions are now threatened by those pesky Americans who keep changing the rules.


Well, this is understandable. You don't need to break such military things down for me. But my example was one of military culture. Not of how much money is spent. My first two sentences were..."Our military isn't the greatest in history because of the money spent. It is so because of the culture." I have experience with the Belgian military in Somalia. I was impressed. Especially in their more free approach towards interrogation. However, there capabilities as a fighting force are greatly diminished by their abilities to interact with other militaries and warfare strategy. Because of America's involvment with NATO, our equipment is similar in the communications and vehicular arena. However, the corporations of equipment with know how was lacking and this meant that Americans had to be more involved than it should have been.

Military culture and defense spending feed off each other, but they are still very different things. Consider the Isalmic idiots causing us so much trouble in Iraq. America spends billions perfecting precision bombing, air technology, and training. Our enemies are spending a couple hundred dollars on Ak-47's and a few hundred dollars on IEDs. Using mass killkings and the media, they know how to come at us and have proven to be quite a thorn. This is their military culture versus our military culture. Where Americans have hope is our military's culture ability to adapt to our enemies tactics as he changes them. But in the end, they are fighting a very different war than us.


It all goes back to our foriegn policies. Our mistake was to give Frenchmen too much credit for their own liberation during WWII. Then there came the UN security council seat. Our foreign policies matched well enough during the Cold War. What America did to beat the Soviet Union to the poor man would have been exactly France's response had they had the ability after Berlin fell. However, de Gaulle's influences (in which Chirac mirrors) places France on top of the food chain under a singly organized Europe. This "EU" is supposed to dominate Europe and span the globe. This will not happen in a world dominated by American influence, so instead of working and playing well with others, France's foreign policy has always been to undermine America's foreign policy where it mattered. Even if it means continuing its mellinnium long love affair with dictators.

GySgt

And it is these elements throughout Europe I speak of. Those elements that salivate over a Mai Lai as they dismiss centuries of tyranny and slaughter. Those elements that celebrate any rumor in a hopes that it is true enough that the holocaust is seen as just an "oops." Those elements that snub their noses at American tourists and behave smugly.

It is this European reaction that gives much credibility on why so many over their hate us. Parties have been ruined. We are to blame.

And I never stated Europeans were "useless." Now, I do have much to say about NATO, the EU, and some governments.

GySgt

Saddam's Iraq would have moved on to his more ruthless sons. The Regime would have carried on. This is why a simple assassination (our world needs to re-address the defintions of this taboo) would not have mattered. The Baathist Regime had to go, not just Saddam Hussein. You have to understand the relationship between the Sunni and the Shi'ite.


Regarding Cuba, Castro was hardly the dictator we would place a Hitler, Hussein, or Stalin in and he was more of that wheelin' and dealin' during the Cold War that America is criticized so unfairly about. However, ask former President's that question. The "War on Terror," which appears to be about democracy as a prescritopn to the venture, started in 2001 and future Presidents will be forced to carry it on one way or the other. The times demand it. And since this "terror" is largely a threat from the Islamic world, Africa, and southern Asia, Iraq seems logical enough.

But you keep trying to insist that because all isn't perfectly done in one swoop that the intent is without merit. We can agree that the Coca-Cola corporation is on a mission to place a Coke in every single human beings hand across the globe. If some societies haven't seen this beautiful American can yet does it mean that Coke is full of ****?

bub

Ah OK I re-read this part and it's understood.

But the answer is still the same: your article about anti-americanism is full of prejudice. You and me know that it's not like that in the USA. But your post also carries several prejudices and I am honestly trying to show you that they are wrong.

It's wrong that we are anti-american. We don't agree with Bush and shout it everywhere, but in general the Americans are liked over here.

OK. So,
According to GySgt: "France helped us to be independant but not so much. In fact they came and fight just because they wanted to lesser the influence of the Brits."
According to a nationalist French: "USA helped us to get rid from the Germans but not so much. In fact they came and fight just because they wanted to lesser the influence of the Germans"

I told you you were like the Frenchs.

Or the USA a model for democracy because they once helped to free Western Europe.


You wanted to show that you were a model for anti-slavery. I just showed you that other countries forbad slavery long before you.

OK statistics are more partials and objective than you:


Belgium: Female parliamentarians: 24.9%
Germany: Female parliamentarians: 31%
France: Female parliamentarians: 10.9%
USA: Female parliamentarians: 13.8% (excepted from France there is the whole Europe in front of you)

Belgium: Female ministers: 55%
Germany: Female ministers: 36%
France: Female ministers: 5%
USA: Female ministers: 7%

Are these really what you call "exeptions"???

The fact that you relentlessly distrust me while I am righ shows you something doensn't it?

To be precize, there have ben massive deportations in EASTERN Europe (=not western Europe) till the 20's. If you don't agree I scan you the text explaining it.

By the way, the same happened in the USA with the cleansing of Indian populations. How many have been killed or forced to abandon their culture?

As for the "some hangings" in Alabama, I was rather speaking about the structural racism in the southern states of the USA: Jim Crow laws - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

My point is not to say "I'm good you're bad" (what you seem to do), its to say "We're both not perfect".

Well...everybody (excepted Belgium I think) is very proud of its army, and everybody will say the same than you.

You say "we are the best ever". But the Spartans who stopped the Persians at Thermopylae, the Prussians, the Napoleonic Armies, the Huns, the Romans, the Spartans...everybody can say they are the bests. That does not make a lot of sense.

As for the insurgents in Iraq...in spite of the support they have from Iran probably, they are still with submachine guns, while you spent trillions and own heavy tanks, helicopters...the only way they can kill some US soldiers is by using guerilla tactics, such as IEDs and snipers. If you were Iraqi you'd do the same.

Some say EXACTLY the same about the USA. You say they're wrong.
I'm kind and believe you. But be honest, loyal, and do the same for me, please.

I HEARD TWICE ABOUT MAI LAI AND IT WAS IN YOUR POSTS. STOP BEING PARANOIAC! AND ONCE MORE NOBODY "DISMISS" HIS HISTORY!
Thats not because I say "the Americans slaughtered almost every Indian in a few decades" that I say "we are perfect and never did it".

GySgt

I don't make things up. I don't know why you persist to deny that this very real sentiment has been around even longer than before Berlin's scourge was denied.....

1) Anti-American sentiment in Europe originated with the discovery of America, the study of the Native Americans, and the examination of its flora, fauna, and climate. The first anti-American theory, the "degeneracy thesis," portrayed America as a regressive and culturally bankrupt continent.

2) The French Revolution created a new type of anti-American political thought, hostile to the political institutions of the United States and their impact upon Europe. Furthermore, the Romantic strain of European thought and literature, hostile to the Enlightenment view of reason and obsessed with history and national character, disdained the American project.

3) With the rise of American industry in the late nineteenth century, intellectual anti-American discourse entered a new form. Mass production, the Taylor system, and the speed of American life and work became a major threat to some intellectuals' view of European life and tradition. Nietzsche wrote, "The breathless haste with which they (the Americans) work - the distinctive vice of the new world - is already beginning ferociously to infect old Europe and is spreading a spiritual emptiness over the continent."

4) A popular, non-political form of anti-Americanism is an attitude that regards American culture as inherently inferior, and lacking in the fine manners, traditions and depth of older societies. It is often accompanied by an aversion to American products and ideas such as McDonalds, American spelling, or Hollywood movies simply because they are American, and a corresponding preference for non-American alternatives.

5) Jean-François Revel answers that blaming America has always been a reflex of European intellectuals. He says that American politicians are given to hyperbole that should not be taken too seriously, and that Europeans have only themselves to blame for today's American predominance, since Europe's own failures in the 20th century made a gift of global power to the United States. He also says that the French themselves would be obsessed with terrorism if suicide planes had simultaneously attacked the Opéra, the Arc de Triomphe, and other prominent Paris sites - although he himself mentions the series of attacks on crowded Paris stores and train and metro stations in 1995, which were met without panic.

6) The author shows how, as the process of post-cold war European unification has progressed, anti-Americanism has proven to be a useful ideology for the definition of a new European identity. He examines this emerging identity and shows how it has led Europeans to a position hostile to any "regime change" by the United States -- no matter how bad the regime may be -- whether in Serbia, Afghanistan, or Iraq.

7) Europe has long had a love-hate relationship with the U.S. But as an unpopular war looms, anger and resentment are peaking. A calm look at a stormy — but resilient — alliance


There are countless and dated analysis to be read on the Internet that clearly records this symptom of anti-Americanism for decades. Today, Europeans wish to pretend that it all has to do with current events and nothing more. But, this is false. Our toppling of Saddasm Hussein did not whip up anti-Americanism in Europe, especially Germany and France. It was there already.

We are hated throughout the world. And despite the fact that the wide margin and vast majority of things we have done for others and ourselves, we are constantly bombarded with accusations, snobbery and hatred. And much of it is jealousy and rage for denied power. Our "allies" in Europe are also a part of this phenomenon. People always look for the dirty nasty secrets in celebrities. They always find the exposure of sin more exciting than the rise of the individual. Nothing is more entertaining than to watch the guy in the spotlight fall down. And the media loves to feed it to us. Civilizations are no different.





Except I'm right and the French are wrong. There is no denying that France was reduced to sewer rebellion long before American troops hit the beach and only after American and British troops rolled through the eastern border they were freed. With the American Revolution