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04-10-2003, 07:12 AM

See, that's the problem. "Payback" leads to extremism.

Unfortunately, it's become clear to me over the past few years that the United States is damned if it does and damned if it doesn't.

I don't know what it's like to be Spanish, but there must be some people that will give you a hard time just because of the country you're from. Well, it's the same here, except it's pretty much everyone giving us a hard time. I went to Canada a few years ago to visit a friend and pretty much every Canadian I ran in to except for her and one of her friends had this big thing about me being a "yankee" and "from the States". One of them was bitching about American TV and being tired of seeing a McDonalds on every corner (the funny part being, of course, that he and a friend had stopped our whole crowd so he could get a burger at McDonalds just a night before). So Canadians are tired of their "culture" being "overrun", when we're pretty much the same people with the same tastes.

Then we go to France and they think we're unsophisticated cowboys. Not all of them, obviously, but enough of the ones I've run into. I know many Brits that look down their nose at us. Everyone in Pakistan seems to believe it's a war against Islam.

Everyone wants different things and we can't make all of them happy all the time. Many people were against the war, but when we get to Iraq, what do we see? Villages waving and smiling and giving our soldiers kisses. And then we have some of Saddam's people beating a man because they saw him laughing with a British soldier - and then, and you will agree with me that this is absolutely atrocious - forcing him to watch as they soaked his son with gasoline and set him on fire.

The United States, whether we like it or not, is the most visible country in the world. We're doing something right, because we have thousands of people immigrating here every here and millions more who would kill to. But because we're so visible and because we're so open, we draw constant fire from the peanut gallery.

I really don't think there's anything we can do about it. So we try to do our best and hope that history proves us right.

04-10-2003, 07:12 AM	#41
dave Guest Posts: n/a	See, that's the problem. "Payback" leads to extremism. Unfortunately, it's become clear to me over the past few years that the United States is damned if it does and damned if it doesn't. I don't know what it's like to be Spanish, but there must be some people that will give you a hard time just because of the country you're from. Well, it's the same here, except it's pretty much <b>everyone</b> giving us a hard time. I went to Canada a few years ago to visit a friend and pretty much every Canadian I ran in to except for her and one of her friends had this big thing about me being a "yankee" and "from the States". One of them was bitching about American TV and being tired of seeing a McDonalds on every corner (the funny part being, of course, that he and a friend had stopped our whole crowd so he could get a burger at McDonalds just a night before). So Canadians are tired of their "culture" being "overrun", when we're pretty much the same people with the same tastes. Then we go to France and they think we're unsophisticated cowboys. Not all of them, obviously, but enough of the ones I've run into. I know many Brits that look down their nose at us. Everyone in Pakistan seems to believe it's a war against Islam. Everyone wants different things and we can't make all of them happy all the time. Many people were against the war, but when we get to Iraq, what do we see? Villages waving and smiling and <b>giving our soldiers kisses</b>. And then we have some of Saddam's people <b>beating a man because they saw him laughing with a British soldier</b> - and then, and you will agree with me that this is absolutely atrocious - <b>forcing him to watch as they soaked his son with gasoline and set him on fire</b>. The United States, whether we like it or not, is the most visible country in the world. We're doing something right, because we have thousands of people immigrating here every here and millions more who would kill to. But because we're so visible <b>and because we're so open</b>, we draw constant fire from the peanut gallery. I really don't think there's anything we can do about it. So we try to do our best and hope that history proves us right.