The Historical Facts

Submitted by Brendan James (United Kingdom), Jul 21, 2002 at 08:58

It is almost a cliche; visitors to the USA from other parts of the world are often astonished by the insularity of Americans and there lack of concern for the World outside the USA. Many of the contributions to this noticeboard reflect this ignorance. I am a British Citizen who deeply admires the USA. There was, in the aftermath of 11 September, and still is in this country great support for America, this was reflected at Government Level by the contribution which our armed forces made and in fact are still making in the ongoing fight against terror. Yes there are a unfortunate comments which have been made in left wing newspapers which reflect there dislike perhaps even hatred for the USA, it would be wrong to accept them as the norm. However voiceferous they are, the fact remains they are a minority who have never and never will reflect the thinking of the British People, any political party which espoused their views would be commiting political suicide.

Having said that Americans often shoots itself in the foot by their somewhat cavalier interpretation of historical facts. The blunt fact is that the USA was dragged into World War 2. She in fact did not declare war on Germany, after the attack on Pearl Harbour, rather Germany declared war on her. Great Britain stood alone from the fall of France in 1940, despite being offered favourable terms by Germany to make peace.

In the final analysis the USA came into that war because it was in her interest so to do, as indeed was the case in World War 1. The same logic applied to the stationing of US troops in Europe during the Cold War. It applies in it's relationship with Saudi Arabia, the country of origin of most of the individuals who carried out the atrocities in Sept 11. It is in the interest of both the USA and Europe that terror is defeated.

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