Bgile wrote:Hammy,
It's amazing to me that you think because we didn't experience the Blitz we aren't allowed to get upset when something like the attack on the Twin Towers happens to us. By implication, you wouldn't be upset if they'd crashed an airplane into a building with 3,000 of your countrymen, since it was just a flee bite on an elephant and was therefore insignificant. Just what proportion of Englishmen alive today experienced the Blitz? I'm guessing it's pretty small.
I didnt say you shouldnt get upset . I said that the American people as a whole live with a false sense of security , and that when something like this happens , they are unable to cope with it .
I suppose that the recently halted Irish Terrorist Bombing campaign over here , which has affected us for the last 40 years or so , has left us used to terrorist attacks , and certainly the first set of four suicide bombings in London , except for those close to the events , did little that I can see to make a change in the national attitude .
You are right that it is only the Old who now remember the Blitz , but images and stories from the wartime are constantly in the papers/on Radio and TV , the UK seems obsessed with the subject . There is a whole page of reminicence about Air raid Wardens and US Bomber accidental crashes in the local paper just today , and I will be very surprised if , when watching a couple of hours of TV tonight , Mr Hitler's features dont glare out at me at some point .
And we would be (very) upset if that had happened here , to , say , Canary Wharf in London , which I suppose is our Manhatten equivalent . I dont think we would be very surprised by it , is all .
The rest of your venting at my expense is obviously in keeping with your impression of my country as a whole. I'm not proud of the actions of some of my countrymen or our leadership, and I'm sure your soldiers would never do such things because of their high sense of moral superiority.
I'm not venting at you , what for ? Mr Bush and Mr Cheney , and our prize Drama Queen , Mr Blair , and all those with them are the ones in the dock for all this . I actually like America , and most of the many Americans I have met down the years , and I cant wait to grab my retirement money and the missus and cross the "pond" and get a small RV and tour the whole place for a year and see it all . We'll pop in to see you , probably .
As for our soldiers , they already have behaved in these stupid ways , because many of them are ignorant and ill-educated adolescents drawn from the poor and routinely brutish environments of our society . The Army doesn't want intelligent people as front line "Grunts" . It wants highly trained chimps who are quick to learn and always obey .
As the Duke of Wellington said , " I dont know what they do to the Enemy but by God they frighten me ! " .
True then , true now .
I guess my reaction to your post is just because of my inherent American arrogance, but I can't help myself. I was probably born that way.
Now dont sulk ,please . Many Americans appear to be that way , ie that it is inconceivable that they should be disliked , or subject to criticism , and become very hurt when people do . We dont .
Apart from Fantasists like Mr Blair , we know that we , as a people , are duplicitous , dissembling selfish hypocrites , who dont give a toss for anything except money , and that the world hates and despises us for it .
(Its what made us Great !)