America is Awesome?

Submitted by Dave Prince (United Kingdom), Jan 3, 2005 at 19:39

As a Brit with an American wife, I feel bad about arguing with the ill-conceived arguments of the last poster.

It is simply not true that without the US the French would be speaking German. Without the ALLIES it may have come to pass, but even if it did... so what? The English were invaded (successfully) by the French a thousand years ago, but we still speak English. The Germans were occupied by the US and Russians for decades, and still speak German. The US, however, is slowly speaking Spanish with no help at all from any European country.

And it is interesting to hear an American talking about "saving" the French, but then whinging about how they haven't yet been paid for it. Incidentally, the biggest help to the British was through... loans. And yet Americans would be disgusted if we charged the US for British troops in the Gulf.

The fact is that terrorism is not a new phenonemon - it has been an ever-present feature of life for thousands of years. And fear and tensions between Muslims and Christians dates back to the Crusades. It seems that America is suddenly being awakened to these two things, and expects the rest of the World to suddenly declare war on something that, frankly, we have been fighting for longer than your country has existed. And for Americans
who talk about "good" and "evil", and "black and white" - the British have for many years regarded the IRA as a "terrorist organisation"... one that received huge amounts of money and support from the US. Even if the US were right, and it was us who were the terrorists... how come we're now your best buddy??

To answer the previous posters closing comment, that he was glad he lived in the greatest nation the 'world has ever known'... well, we'll let history decide. But I'd remind him that the Romans and British Empires (and even the Dutch, French, Portuguese and Spanish) were much greater in their heyday. America is still very very young (most Americans WERE Europeans not so very long ago), and therein lies its problem and its salvation.

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