The BBC on Anti-Americanism

(By Ray D.)

UPDATE: Another interesting piece on anti-Americanism entitled "Anti-Americanism feels like Racism". Wouldn't it be nice if media talked about this more than once in a blue moon? Wouldn't it also be nice if media admitted their own major role in fostering, encouraging and spreading anti-Americanism throughout Europe? Unfortunately - most of the follow-up comments by the BBC's overwhelmingly left-wing audience demonstrate that many on both sides of the pond are still in a deep state of denial about the problem or simply belong to the "blame-America-first" crowd. Excerpts from the article:

""But some people just fly off the handle without even talking to me - it's as if they had been waiting to run into an American all day to let their feelings out," she says.

To avoid confrontations she says she lowers her voice on the Underground and in pubs.

But in one incident an older man asked her directly if she was American.

"When I said yes he said: 'I just want you to know that I think you are the poorest people I have ever met in my life' - meaning we were low-life.

"I said I was sorry he felt that way, but that I disagreed."

The man started shouting obscenities at her group. The row developed into a brawl and Ms Cox suffered a black eye as she tried to pull two people apart.

"After that I cried for two days, then booked a flight back to the States. I felt so hated, I needed to be with people who loved me."

Some friends now advise her to tell people she is Canadian, to deflect potential abuse, an option she calls "sad"."

By the way: Why did the US Embassy in London REFUSE TO COMMENT ON THIS STORY? Some of America's so-called "diplomats" are apparently so afraid to ever rock the boat that they won't stand up and discuss the pervasive hatred faced by Americans abroad. This sad and pathetic dereliction of duty by many at the State Department and elsewhere within the US government has gone much too far. How can those charged with public diplomacy at the London Embassy refuse to comment on this and still pick up their taxpayer supplied checks in good conscience? We know there are people within the US government who do see the problem - but they are far too few.

This piece on the BBC is another sign that more and more people are starting to "get it." A must read. Excerpts:

"The protests against nuclear weapons, for instance, concentrated on American weapons. The anti-war rallies were against American-led wars. The anti death penalty campaign focused on Texas.

A pattern was emerging and has never seriously been altered. A pattern of willingness to condemn America for the tiniest indiscretion - or to magnify those indiscretions - while leaving the murderers, dictators, and thieves who run other nations oddly untouched. (...)

In the heart of Paris, there is the Avenue Franklin Roosevelt. Roosevelt, the man who helped defeat Nazi Germany and liberate Parisian streets, is celebrated here. And the point many French people make is that they would celebrate George W Bush, too, if they agreed with him. The source of anti-Americanism is plain they say. As one interviewee told us: "It's the policies, Stupid."

Well up to a point: in Paris there is plenty of evidence to be found that anti-Americanism is way more than that, that's it's not simply reasonable opposition to the things America does.

The kind of anti-Americanism fostered by French intellectuals down the centuries revolves around intense dislike of what America is - not what it does."

A lot of this sounds remarkably like what we have been saying for the past three and a half years. Perhaps a wider segment of society is starting to open its eyes. Perhaps...

Endnote: A fascinating comment received today:

"It will take a lot more than a change in tone to rebuild the many burnt bridges between Europe and the US.

There's so much more than language at play here. Americans are extremely resentful of foreign efforts to undermine their rights as established and guaranteed by the US Constitution and Bill of Rights. There is an inept and transparent attempt to weaken and undermine the United States though bogus notions of 'International law'. Kyoto is a prime example - How on earth can such a proposal be taken seriously when China is exempt? Or UN declarations that individuals do not have right to defend themselves. And then that have the gall to call us stupid for rejecting such nonsense? Wow, Just wow.

It's actually quite amazing that the American people have been so tolerant of the relentless European assault on American core values. The attempt to establish government as supreme at the expense of individual liberty is especially grating (free speech, the right to keep and bear arms, etc) and the very negative portrayal of Americans who hold such rights and privileges dear does not go unnoticed. Europeans can do as they please, but when they try to impose their values on Americans, the line is crossed. They're forgetting most of us were escaping constraints, limits on opportunity, serfdom, and oppression when we left for the New World. And you want to re-impose that elitist crap on us? Hmmm. It doesn't compute. We really don't understand the European affinity for living under someone else's control - be it a king, dictator, or nanny state.

To achieve parity (or supremacy) Europe seems far more interested in tearing the United States down than pulling themselves up. This anti-Americanism issue much, much deeper than merely the tone of the discussion. It should start with bringing as halt to the European attempts to undo what America has achieved.

Personally, I'd much rather have anti-Americanism out in the open and in plain view rather than lurking behind a superficial and disingenuous smile."

Oh yes. We know the disingenuous smiles and the phony exhortations by so many European America-bashers that they really and truly love the American friends and only want what's in their best interest. Then the same people turn around, and, in the company of the like-minded, shamelessly smear and stereotype an entire nation - blaming it for all the world's problems.

Comments

[Sagredo]

Don't get too excited about this. You can the same thing about it as you said about Malzahn's piece in Spiegel. Both are one shot displays of 'even-handedness' , puiblic relation stunts by virlunently anti-american media. If anything, the British are even more anti-american than the Germans because they have been more closely tied to us, and because of their hatred of the Zionist Entity which stole Palestine from their control and has always controlled the stupid Americans. BBC is the worst of the lot. One female mid-East reporters swooned over the death of that sweetie-pie Arafat, another married a Palestinian, both reported for years, 'objectively', on the mideast conflict.

[grlzjustwant2havefun]

Joschka Fischer got a teeny, tiny clue, mebbe someone else was listening????

[edvars]

@Justin Webb

"French intellectuals down the centuries revolves around intense dislike of what America is - not what it does."

Make me really sick to hear such crap, the French People are not Anti American.

[german observer]

This interesting article in the FAZ is quite on spot. "Geostrategic analphabetism" hits the nail on the head (with respect to European elites).

[Ernest T Bass]

It will take a lot more than a change in tone to rebuild the many burnt bridges between Europe and the US.
There's so much more than language at play here. Americans are extremely resentful of foreign efforts to undermine their rights as established and guaranteed by the US Constitution and Bill of Rights. There is an inept and transparent attempt to weaken and undermine the United States though bogus notions of 'International law'. Kyoto is a prime example - How on earth can such a proposal be taken seriously when China is exempt? Or UN declarations that individuals do not have right to defend themselves (http://www.iansa.org/un/documents/salw_hr_report_2006.pdf). And then that have the gall to call us stupid for rejecting such nonsense? Wow, Just wow.

It's actually quite amazing that the American people have been so tolerant of the relentless European assault on American core values. The attempt to establish government as supreme at the expense of individual liberty is especially grating (free speech, the right to keep and bear arms, etc) and the very negative portrayal of Americans who hold such rights and privileges dear does not go unnoticed. Europeans can do as they please, but when they try to impose their values on Americans, the line is crossed. They're forgetting most of us were escaping constraints, limits on opportunity, serfdom, and oppression when we left for the New World. And you want to re-impose that elitist crap on us? Hmmm. It doesn't compute. We really don't understand the European affinty for living under someone else's control - be it a king, dictator, or nanny state.

To achieve parity (or supremacy) Europe seems far more interested in tearing the United States down than pulling themselves up. This anti-Americanism issue much, much deeper than merely the tone of the discussion. It should start with bringing as halt to the European attempts to undo what America has achieved.

Personally, I'd much rather have anti-Americanism out in the open and in plain view rather than lurking behind a superficial and disingenuous smile.

[gbl]

As a frequent visitor to Europe, especially (Munich) Germany for business, I have found anti-Americanism has been around much longer than the cause of the day (Bush policies and the Iraq war). If it wasn't that it was always something else. I blame the media and politicans for their constant attacks over many years for creating this atmosphere. France by far is the worse. Sadly with all the problems which face the EU, anti-Americanism seems to be their favorite. The perceptions of an American are just plain wacky. I deal with PhD's mainly and even their understanding of Americans is very puzzeling. In all honesty, I see American's overall so have a pretty good understanding of what's going on around the world (not an expert understanding but aware), whereas many Europeans are "experts" on foreign policy, our stealing oil, being fat and lazy, consumed with material items. I find many Europeans experts only in what their politicians and media spoon feed them, a very limited and narrow view of what's going on outside their world, not all in the best of health and really pretty crappy at being "diplomatic" at times. And for any country in the EU to call American's lazy is plain nuts, just attempt to start an early work day or schedule meetings. You'll get hit with "that's too early" and/or were on "holiday". Right now I have people on a week long "Easter Holiday". The attitudes will not change overnight and I doubt they ever will. I do wonder however if (when) the EU gets in to trouble again (and it will) will the US come to help as it did in the past. I remember recently reading an article titled "What American can learn from the rest of the world", frankly the world should learn from America. Were not perfect, a fact we realize, but where we have come from and what we have innovated over the years - which benefits everyone globally -- is unmatched. Maybe other countries should have their citizens proud to be (Germans, French, etc), wave the flag, have a "do it by yourself" attitude with a excellent opportunity to become something. Frankly all I see is a status quo attitide of what government/or business can do for me and lacking the incentive to break away from the pack. I cringe when I hear someone in the states say we need to be more European. Not for me!

[Inkling]

This issue may be getting worse, but it's not particularly new. I was in the UK while Carter was President and had some Canadians offer me a Canadian pin, so I could pretend to be from there. I declined.

AMERICANS: When someone in the UK--or all of Europe for that matter--asks your nationality, perhaps the best answer is: "I'm the reason you're not speaking German right now." Or, if in Germany where they can't help speaking German, "I'm the reason you're not wearing a swastika."

In situations like these, the best answers are like the parables of Jesus, they're ones that force someone to think in order to understand what you've said and, having begun to think, it takes some conscious effort for them to return to their unthinking prejudices. It's good for them and the better Europeans will ponder a moment, laugh, and agree with what you said.

I close with two remarks G. K. Chesterton made about Germany that'll be in my upcoming book, Chesterton on War. The first shows his good sense. The second is much funnier and still true.

"You cannot make men enthusiastic for the mere negative idea of peace; it is not an inspiring thing. You might make them enthusiastic for some positive bond or quality that bound them to others and made their enemies their friends. You may get Tommy to love Jimmy; you cannot get Tommy to love the mere fact that he is not quarrelling with Jimmy. So it would be far easier to make an Englishman love Germany than to make him love peace with Germany. Germany is a lovable thing; peace is not. Germany is a positive thing; one can like its beer, admire its music, love its children, with their charming elf-tales and elf-customs, appreciate the beaming ceremony of its manners, and even (with a brave effort), tolerate the sound of its language. But in the mere image of a still and weaponless Europe there is nothing that men will ever love, either as they can love another country or as they can love their own."

"We have had many reasons for liking Germans and many reasons for disliking them. Many of us could hardly live in a world without their music. Many of us could not live in the same house with their metaphysics. I know more than one Englishman, Mr. Titterton for instance, who would rather live in Munich than in heaven, but who would rather live in hell than Berlin."

--Mike Perry, Inkling Books, Seattle

[Suzanne]

ReL E. Bass comment

"Americans are extremely resentful of foreign efforts to undermine their rights as established and guaranteed by the US Constitution and Bill of Rights."

You are SO right. I can tell you how many times I have "debated" with Europeans who INFORM me that our Constitution is outdated and in need of change. How our electoral system is in need of change. How our (insert nearly anything here) is in need of change.

And they call US arrogant?

As for Edvars who says:

"Make me really sick to hear such crap, the French People are not Anti American."

Please quote correctly. The writer said French INTELLECTUALS. And they are indeed rabidly anti-American. Just like British intellectuals (so-called) and German, etc. etc.

[Mike H.]

"To achieve parity (or supremacy) Europe seems far more interested in tearing the United States down than pulling themselves up."

The march of the lobsters.

Phweww, it's getting hot in here. ;)

[Pamela]

After that I cried for two days, then booked a flight back to the States. I felt so hated, I needed to be with people who loved me."

Oh, give me a break. I have no sympathy for this spineless wuss.

@edvars
Make me really sick to hear such crap, the French People are not Anti American.

Allow me to introduce my Aunt Eve. Mom's older sister. They were born and raised in New Orleans so a version of French was their second language.

Eve married a career Air Force guy. No pun intended but his name was Guy. For 7 years they were stationed in France - Fountainblaue? Did I spell that correctly? Probably not. Anyway, when De Gaulle pulled his NATO stunt all the French Aunt Eve had known - the fish monger, the hair dresser, the bakery people - suddenly could not understand her French.

7 years of what she thought was just a friendly relationship with neighbors - blew up in her face.

She refused to ever speak French again. She would spit first.

Inkling
AMERICANS: When someone in the UK--or all of Europe for that matter--asks your nationality, perhaps the best answer is: "I'm the reason you're not speaking German right now." Or, if in Germany where they can't help speaking German, "I'm the reason you're not wearing a swastika."

I think you inadvertantly hit one something but you don't quite see it.

Why are Germans and French such great friends?

Guilt.

And part of the anti-Americanism that is so blatant is because every time they see an American, they see their own guilt.

As for the UK - I haven't lost hope yet. But I may.

[Jabba the Tutt]

@edvars writes: "Make me really sick to hear such crap, the French People are not Anti American."

Check out the blog "No Pasaran" http://www.no-pasaran.blogspot.com/, which documents French anti-americanism on a daily basis. Also, Erik Svane wrote an a book on French anti-americanism: La Bannière Étalée, see page at: http://www.eriksvane.com/banniere.htm

My point is just become completely informed and then express your opinion. Liberal media types tell us everyday that the US media is not biased. Fish deny the existence of water, they never notice it.

[Jabba the Tutt]

I knew this article sounded familiar, it's from 2006. But I just love the comments on how Americans are so ignorant and provincial. I lived and worked in Germany for 2 years. There were people who hated the people in the next town and had been there one time in their life. The idea of moving to take a better job was seen as the highest form of oppression. I found Germans much less willing to travel, much less willing to try something new, much less interested in the local history and sehenswuerdigkeiten. And overall, I found them much less open and curious. I had a great time, though.

[Pamela]

@Jabba
The idea of moving to take a better job was seen as the highest form of oppression.

Interesting. Would you be kind enough to elaborate?
Thanks.

[WhatDoIKnow]

Interesting. Would you be kind enough to elaborate?

Pamela

For most Germans (by the way, now I use the expression "most Germans" instead of "Germans", so that sensitive or emotional readers don't get too excited), as I was saying, for most Germans moving to a different city/town/place for a (better) job is a huge burden.

The fact that they cannot find the right job in their city means first and foremost that the State has failed them, and only a distant second does it mean that they have to do something about it (like moving to another city). Thus, moving becomes an unpleasent undertaking, which they are forced to embark upon only because their trust in the State was unwarranted.

Having said that, I must also say that this is changing. Entire East German communities are moving to West Germany, and also young Germans are becoming more flexible. However, their mobility is nothing compared to that of Americans.

Now a short personal story. A few years ago I was talking with a very friendly coworker in Germany about...guess what...the injustices in America. Several "injustices" were brought up, but the one pertinent to this discusiosn was how the system forces Americans to sell their houses and move to other places fot better jobs. I asked him if he believed it's a better deal to keep living in your own house in a city/town which offers absolutely no job/career opportunities. Does he find it attractive to basically rot in that town and receive State alimony, or does he think that moving and going through some initial move-related pains is worthwile if it offers the chance to become productive and actually feel alive again.

There were several moments of silence, in which one could hear the noise of the brain machinery processing this obviously revolutionary information. However, not being an ideologue, the guy agreed (even if grudgingly) that this movign business is actually not that bad and can have positive effects. End of story.

The interesting question is why would an honest guy like this be so prejudiced against the "American system", how did he become this way since he had no personal experience with it? The answer is very simple. He is a 100% product of the German media bias. The German media is guilty for blatantly misinforming him and shaping his opinion in a certain direction, and he himself is guilty for not taking initiative and thinking for himself.

[Scout]

@WDIK: My experience exactly. The typical German stays at home on the dole rather than move a couple hundred miles to a place where his skills are still in demand, after all, Father State takes care of everything. Now people are up in arms because after the latest umemployment insurance reform (spell reform with very, very, small letters), unemployment benefits are (*gasp*) more limited in time and combined with welfare payments in some cases! That having been said, the system is still far too generous to an increasing number of so-called workers who have simply concluded that staying home and watching Deutschland sucht den Superstar is easier than working.
However, there is a middle class out there in Germany, many of them hard-working, that is increasingly feeling the pinch of living costs and taxes going out of control without a commensurate increase in income. I hear it and see it these days. But even they won't admit that this system is not solvent, long term. Nor will they do something about their predicament, because that would require initiative. The State here killed the last vestiges of that long ago.
I read somewhere recently that a typcial 25 year old can expect to pay at least 125K more into the old-age pension scheme than he could ever expect to get out of it. How's that for a good deal?

[John F. Opie]

Hi -

I've been in Germany almost continuously since 1980. To be exact, from March 1980 to Aug 1986, then from March 1990 to current date (was in the US in DC from Aug 1986 to Mar 1990).

I came to Germany to do my doctorate in philosophy after doing my first degree in philosophy and psychology. Topic was to be a detailed analysis of the phenonomenological methodology of Husserl and Heidegger, looking at the philosophical construction and development of their methodologies. In 1984 I decided, while this was fascinating, that I needed to do something that would also get me a real-world job, and I changed fields and did a MA in political science, philosophy and economics. My girlfriend of the time was the major reason: I have been married to her now for 17 years and she's the reason I'm in Germany (she's Austrian, it's a long story...that's none of your business...:-))

My first encounter with anti-Americanism was a teacher at the university where I was bringing my German up to speed. He spent an entire class berating American nuclear policy after I wrote a single paragraph on American foreign policy and the balance of power with the SovUnion. Afterwards, a Spanish girl came up to me and wondered why I hadn't defended myself - I left him to ramble on and simply worked out his arguments to understand why he was so virulently aggressive and ultimately rude about a single passage written at his request that we write a paragraph about the political policies of where we came from (I was the only American in that group) - and I simply told her that it wasn't worth the time, since he wasn't listening to anyone but himself.

About three months later I was out drinking with my first friend in Germany, a Canadian, who had hooked up with a German guy who was interested in these two Norte Americanos. We sat in a fairly nice bar and he rattled on with the party line about how socialism was going to beat capitalism and how completely and totally wrong our world view was. I remember his absolute, total incredulity when I pointed out that the core of socialism didn't work (planned economies) and that it would be socialism that landed on the garbage heap of history, not capitalism (remember, this was 1981 or so!).

Later I dated a Canadian woman who was completely apolitical, but who had friends who went to the demos in Freiburg, where I studied. They went there for the boys, who were universally viewed as being sexually exciting because they were involved in whatever they were protesting.

Later, when I switched fields, I ran into the usual stereotypes and ignorance. One economics professor stated that Reagan's budgets were destroying the US, and when I pointed out that it was Congress that actually spends the money, I was greeted with complete indifference, since I wasn't supporting his case. But it wasn't merely the ignorance regarding the US: it was more fundamental than that. I increasingly ran into a type of developing academic, people working on advanced degrees, who were opportunistically anti-American not because they believed - there were enough of those as well - but rather because they were so in love with their own thinking ability that they were convinced that their interpretation of the world was, of course, the only logical and proper way of viewing the world.

Our American readers must understand why Europe appears so appealing to that group of people who truly believe that they are the elite of the US and "deserve" to be in power, i.e. the same group of elitist academics that are in many ways probably the core of the Democratic Party today. It's because of exactly that: the belief that they are god's gift to the world, that they know the solutions, that if all these stupid people would just listen to them everything would be so much better. That's much of Europe's attitude to the US: if the US would just do what the Europeans tell them to do, then the world would be a much better and safer place.

And if you believe that, you'll believe anything.

But do you see a pattern developing? One of close-mindedness, of rejection of empirical data that doesn't meet with ideological (or as I prefer, idiological, the logic of idiots, rather than the logic of ideas) precepts that govern how groups of people perceive the world. It's an institutionalized mind set, a closing of the European mind, as it were...

[Sagredo]

@Opie

Thanks for a great post! As an academic myself, I believe most of what you have said about academia and intellectuals is correct.

But there are other factors as well.

Higher education is entrusted with the conservation of culture and its transfer to later generations. Because of this, it is conservative by nature--not quite the hotbead of new ideas it is made out to be, at least in the social sciences.

So much of its current left wing orientation is the holdover from events of a century or more ago. Political correctness, and multi-culturalism for example, can be traced to anthropology's guilt and over-compensation for its racism, and its overbearing western supremacism of the 19th and early 20th centuries. And so much Marxism is traceable not only to the very real hardships and injustice suffered by workers in early capitalism but also by the fact that the left was the main enemy of the Nazis for so many critical years of the last century.

And of course, faculty tend to hire students of their students, followers of their followers, and people who do not disrupt faculty social occasions with obnoxiously incorrect ideas.

[Pamela]

Well. Where to begin.

All is for naught if Europe does not get a clue.

It took me what - about 2 months - to answer a friend re: whether or not Amercia should save Europe. Again.

And the answer is No.

There is - and I am guilty - a conceit - on the part of Americans of having saved Europe from its own ills. The people who 'stayed behind' spawned - yeah, that would be you - those of no courage, no smarts, only murderous ideologies that we fled from and spilled our own blood to save you from.

That has to stop.

There is a myth that Europe and America are somehow connected, by culture, by law, etc.

It may have been true at some place in time, but it is true no longer.

America is simply undeciferable to Europe.

Europe as Americans think of it is dying, if not already dead.

Europe can't fight anything because it doesn't know what to fight for. Europe doesn't even know what 'fight' means.

America needs to understand that and fast.

[neocon]

While I could understand the woman's sadness at the comments of the Germans, there is a somehow related topic I wanna say something about.
I have a colleague at work and she is American. As I once asked her about US being a good or bad country. She didn't answer, rather she said that "the Americans used to be loved everywhere"
Dennis Prager used to say that the people on the left feel the need to be loved and suffer if this doesn't happen.

[Ernest T Bass]

I tend to agree, Pamela. I can't say I take any pleasure in it though.

Europe really overplayed the anti-American card. It's gone past the tipping point. Of course, this is the wedge that the Soviets were hoping to drive all along - it just came along a bit too late for the USSR. Now it's the Muslims who stand reap the harvest of the KGB's seeds. The rot in Europe's spirit is a force multiplier for whoever chooses to take them on - and it already looks like that is Islam. Third time's a charm! They just have to be a little less obvious about it this time around. Less combat. More fear. That's the ticket. They'll cave.

America's role in the future should be limited to providing an escape route for the few good souls that 'get it'. We should leave NATO yesterday.

[Ernest T Bass]

@neocon

I believe that Dennis Prager is correct in that analysis. While Dennis Prager has done some fine work in analyzing the leftist mindset, Evan Sayet has done a phenomenal job of connecting the dots. This is a must-see video if you truly are interested in making some sense out of our inverted world:

YouTube - How Modern Liberals Think

and the MP3 version (for your iPod) is here:

Heritage Foundation - Evan Sayet

[FranzisM]

It´s your Condi uniform, Ma´am.

/chanelling subway eyecontact

[Dan Kauffman]

"Check out the blog "No Pasaran" http://www.no-pasaran.blogspot.com/, which documents French anti-americanism on a daily basis. Also, Erik Svane "

Love No Pasaran and Erik Svane is great. His other website has something that alway gets me in stitches LOL

Americans Anonymous

Keep Your Hopes Up, Americans Overseas, Help Is Available!
"Hello, my name is Eric, and I'm an American."
"HELLO, ERIC!"
"I used to be embarrassed to admit I carried a U.S. passport, for fear of what smug and self-righteous foreigners would carp to me about my country, and ashamed in turn about the embarrassment. These dark secrets led to feelings of guilt and to an evil circle from which I couldn 't escape. That's when I discovered AA (Americans Anonymous)…” More…

[storm72]

For Europe, the poster child for real and cultural genocide, oppression and exploitation of peoples of color, and other crimes against humanity throughout its history, to criticize US foreign policy is to show nothing but utter self-righteousness and hypocrisy. It's especially galling to see the British demonstrate yet once again how utterly ignorant they are of their own history of rape, pillage, and murder around the world. As far as I'm concerned, the British Crown symbolizes Britain's bloody history, and the fact that they hold on to and revere this vile, evil institution shows how unwilling Britain is to come to terms with its own history. Putting aside Britain's obvious crimes against humanity in Africa and Asia, what the English have done to the Irish, Scottish, and Welsh is nothing short of cultural genocide. Why anyone in the US would hold Great Britain in esteem is beyond me.

[PlutosDad]

I know people who said they were treated like this in Europe during the 90s, when Clinton was President, you know the one they supposedly loved? (Funny people don't remember France excoriating us at the UN all the time, or stomping out during Warren Christopher's goodbye dinner) They had to take bags and things inscribed with the Canadian red leaf around with them to get treated with any respect at all in Spain.

In London they said they were treated nicely, I guess that is becoming less and less the case. Hopefully, since this one article sounds like a bar brawl, it was just some drunken idiot.

But this has nothing to do with Bush or US Foreign policy, since it has happened no matter who was in charge here. It's just the way things are. They hate us until they need us.

[Karl the Krud]

Europeans should remember that hate breeds hate, and when the Killing Fields come back to Europe, as Bosnia portends, Americans will stay over here and shout "Burn baby, burn!". I can't wait.