No, sorry, not really. Any good points in there got buried/nullified/whatever by very weak presentation. I was going to post that hours ago, but let it go. Sorry, Es, this patting each other on the back, congratulating each other for weak arguments stuff should stop.

You don't know a single fellow citizen of the USA that believes we should be in Iraq?!? Sorry, where have you been the last ... (hmmm, end of May, 2008 - errr, March 2003? = let's say approximately) 5 years and 2 months?
I have personal friends that argued for being in Iraq in June 2003 and prolly still would. I remember one discussion clearly, over lunch at a little restaurant known as Fazoli's. Worse yet, the spin was already changing: now, all of the sudden, we were there to liberate those poor Iraqis. ("Bill, do you mean to say we shouldn't be there to help liberate those Iraqis? How dare you!" "No, Phil, I am saying that's not the reason we were given for going in. We were told Saddam had WMDs." "What are you talking about, Bill?!? The goal was to liberate the Iraqis! Always was, still is, always will be!" --- OK, the last of the quotes is fabricated. The others are not.)
I'll bet that if you look through posts from 2-3 years ago just on the S@H forums alone, you will find several Americans arguing it was right for us to go to war with Iraq (some at the same time also insulting Muslims).

No, sorry, not really. Any good points in there got buried/nullified/whatever by very weak presentation. I was going to post that hours ago, but let it go. Sorry, Es, this patting each other on the back, congratulating each other for weak arguments stuff should stop.

Sorry, run your strong argument past me once again, will you? Er, what argument?

And let's not rewrite S@H forum history either

And let's not rewrite S@H forum history either

I think you'll find a lot of 'evidence' within *my* post history... ;)

(Why o why will no bod y ev er list en to me.)

No, sorry, not really. Any good points in there got buried/nullified/whatever by very weak presentation. I was going to post that hours ago, but let it go. Sorry, Es, this patting each other on the back, congratulating each other for weak arguments stuff should stop.

Sorry, run your strong argument past me once again, will you? Er, what argument?

Es knows precisely what I am talking about.

No, sorry, not really. Any good points in there got buried/nullified/whatever by very weak presentation. I was going to post that hours ago, but let it go. Sorry, Es, this patting each other on the back, congratulating each other for weak arguments stuff should stop.

Sorry, run your strong argument past me once again, will you? Er, what argument?

Es knows precisely what I am talking about.

No..I don't sorry. Can you explain it to me please? :D

People as a whole simply do NOT hate the USA. What they detest is the arrogance of American politicians who serve only to promote their US business interests and their own pockets. The US has got about as far from the tenets of its founding fathers as it is possible to go.

Stop feeling hated and start listening for a change. Learn something about other societies and religions. Stop manufacturing terrorists where none existed by using sledgehammers to crack nuts. Recognise that Forest Gump was a satire on the last 60 years of American life and attitudes and adopt a little humility to go along with your awesome power.

People like me have a huge fund of good will towards the US but that fund is not bottomless and your apparent collective belief that "the American Way" is the only way simply has to change. Please realise that most of the world simply cannot and will not live that way. That does not make them your enemies and they might even make good friends.

In other words, grow up. The world is not not your playpen.

Jeebus, what a waste.

People as a whole simply do NOT hate the USA. What they detest is the arrogance of American politicians who serve only to promote their US business interests and their own pockets. The US has got about as far from the tenets of its founding fathers as it is possible to go.

Stop feeling hated and start listening for a change. Learn something about other societies and religions. Stop manufacturing terrorists where none existed by using sledgehammers to crack nuts. Recognise that Forest Gump was a satire on the last 60 years of American life and attitudes and adopt a little humility to go along with your awesome power.

People like me have a huge fund of good will towards the US but that fund is not bottomless and your apparent collective belief that "the American Way" is the only way simply has to change. Please realise that most of the world simply cannot and will not live that way. That does not make them your enemies and they might even make good friends.

In other words, grow up. The world is not not your playpen.

"People as a whole simply do NOT hate the UK. What they detest is the arrogance of British politicians who serve only to promote their UK business interests and their own pockets. The UK has got about as far from the tenets of its founding principles as it is possible to go.

"Stop feeling hated and start listening for a change. Learn something about other societies and religions. Stop manufacturing terrorists where none existed by using sledgehammers to crack nuts. Recognise that (insert whatever stupid movie you would like here) was a (insert some stupid non sequitur here) on British life and attitudes and adopt a little humility to go along with your awesome power.

"People like me have a huge fund of good will towards the UK but that fund is not bottomless and your apparent collective belief that "the British Way" is the only way simply has to change. Please realise that most of the world simply cannot and will not live that way. That does not make them your enemies and they might even make good friends.

"In other words, grow up. The world is not not your playpen."

Wow, was that easy. All I had to do was describe 300 million people in a such a general way that it couldn't possibly have any relevance to anything. Funnily enough, I even kinda noted how off base it was when I commented on an "apparent collective belief," that has no basis in reality--300 million people rarely, if ever, have any collective beliefs. Nor is there any real way to determine if they do.

Oh wait, I didn't do anything here, I just parroted some overly large generalizations that don't accurately reflect what any number of hundreds of millions of people may happen to think.

Will someone please glad hand me for posting some unfounded generalizations?

"I'm trying to maintain a shred of dignity in this world." - Me

People as a whole simply do NOT hate the USA.

What they detest is the arrogance of American politicians who serve only to promote their US business interests and their own pockets. The US has got about as far from the tenets of its founding fathers as it is possible to go.

Stop feeling hated and start listening for a change.

Feel hated (by the unstated other people)?
are not listening (to what is not quite clear, but some clues are provided)?

Learn something about other societies and religions.

Stop manufacturing terrorists where none existed by using sledgehammers to crack nuts.

Recognise that Forest Gump was a satire on the last 60 years of American life and attitudes and adopt a little humility to go along with your awesome power.

People like me have a huge fund of good will towards the US but that fund is not bottomless and your apparent collective belief that "the American Way" is the only way simply has to change.

Please realise that most of the world simply cannot and will not live that way. That does not make them your enemies and they might even make good friends.

In other words, grow up. The world is not not your playpen.

Will someone please glad hand me for posting some unfounded generalizations?

"People as a whole simply do NOT hate the UK. What they detest is the arrogance of British politicians who serve only to promote their UK business interests and their own pockets. The UK has got about as far from the tenets of its founding principles as it is possible to go.

"Stop feeling hated and start listening for a change. Learn something about other societies and religions. Stop manufacturing terrorists where none existed by using sledgehammers to crack nuts. Recognise that (insert whatever stupid movie you would like here) was a (insert some stupid non sequitur here) on British life and attitudes and adopt a little humility to go along with your awesome power.

"People like me have a huge fund of good will towards the UK but that fund is not bottomless and your apparent collective belief that "the British Way" is the only way simply has to change. Please realise that most of the world simply cannot and will not live that way. That does not make them your enemies and they might even make good friends.

"In other words, grow up. The world is not not your playpen."

Wow, was that easy. All I had to do was describe 300 million people in a such a general way that it couldn't possibly have any relevance to anything. Funnily enough, I even kinda noted how off base it was when I commented on an "apparent collective belief," that has no basis in reality--300 million people rarely, if ever, have any collective beliefs. Nor is there any real way to determine if they do.

Oh wait, I didn't do anything here, I just parroted some overly large generalizations that don't accurately reflect what any number of hundreds of millions of people may happen to think.

Will someone please glad hand me for posting some unfounded generalizations?

Will someone please glad hand me for posting some unfounded generalizations?

Absolutely!!!! LMAO

Actually..about 100 years ago your post would not have been unfounded. The UK has a lot to answer for in history and certainly have not behaved in a benign way to the rest of the world. People in India, Ireland and other occupied territories at the time would certainly agree with the parallels with how the US is behaving now as how the UK behaved during it's empire days.

That, while much more accurate, doesn't apply to 60, or 300, million people, and certainly does not allow for the interchangeability of the terms "American," and "American gov't" and "individual Americans."

Jeebus, what a waste.

People as a whole simply do NOT hate the USA. What they detest is the arrogance of American politicians who serve only to promote their US business interests and their own pockets. The US has got about as far from the tenets of its founding fathers as it is possible to go.

Stop feeling hated and start listening for a change. Learn something about other societies and religions. Stop manufacturing terrorists where none existed by using sledgehammers to crack nuts. Recognise that Forest Gump was a satire on the last 60 years of American life and attitudes and adopt a little humility to go along with your awesome power.

People like me have a huge fund of good will towards the US but that fund is not bottomless and your apparent collective belief that "the American Way" is the only way simply has to change. Please realise that most of the world simply cannot and will not live that way. That does not make them your enemies and they might even make good friends.

In other words, grow up. The world is not not your playpen.

"People as a whole simply do NOT hate the UK. What they detest is the arrogance of British politicians who serve only to promote their UK business interests and their own pockets. The UK has got about as far from the tenets of its founding principles as it is possible to go.

"Stop feeling hated and start listening for a change. Learn something about other societies and religions. Stop manufacturing terrorists where none existed by using sledgehammers to crack nuts. Recognise that (insert whatever stupid movie you would like here) was a (insert some stupid non sequitur here) on British life and attitudes and adopt a little humility to go along with your awesome power.

"People like me have a huge fund of good will towards the UK but that fund is not bottomless and your apparent collective belief that "the British Way" is the only way simply has to change. Please realise that most of the world simply cannot and will not live that way. That does not make them your enemies and they might even make good friends.

"In other words, grow up. The world is not not your playpen."

Wow, was that easy. All I had to do was describe 300 million people in a such a general way that it couldn't possibly have any relevance to anything. Funnily enough, I even kinda noted how off base it was when I commented on an "apparent collective belief," that has no basis in reality--300 million people rarely, if ever, have any collective beliefs. Nor is there any real way to determine if they do.

Oh wait, I didn't do anything here, I just parroted some overly large generalizations that don't accurately reflect what any number of hundreds of millions of people may happen to think.

Will someone please glad hand me for posting some unfounded generalizations?

Sure. Well said! ;-)

Jeebus, what a waste.

People as a whole simply do NOT hate the USA. What they detest is the arrogance of American politicians who serve only to promote their US business interests and their own pockets. The US has got about as far from the tenets of its founding fathers as it is possible to go.

Stop feeling hated and start listening for a change. Learn something about other societies and religions. Stop manufacturing terrorists where none existed by using sledgehammers to crack nuts. Recognise that Forest Gump was a satire on the last 60 years of American life and attitudes and adopt a little humility to go along with your awesome power.

People like me have a huge fund of good will towards the US but that fund is not bottomless and your apparent collective belief that "the American Way" is the only way simply has to change. Please realise that most of the world simply cannot and will not live that way. That does not make them your enemies and they might even make good friends.

In other words, grow up. The world is not not your playpen.

"People as a whole simply do NOT hate the UK. What they detest is the arrogance of British politicians who serve only to promote their UK business interests and their own pockets. The UK has got about as far from the tenets of its founding principles as it is possible to go.

"Stop feeling hated and start listening for a change. Learn something about other societies and religions. Stop manufacturing terrorists where none existed by using sledgehammers to crack nuts. Recognise that (insert whatever stupid movie you would like here) was a (insert some stupid non sequitur here) on British life and attitudes and adopt a little humility to go along with your awesome power.

"People like me have a huge fund of good will towards the UK but that fund is not bottomless and your apparent collective belief that "the British Way" is the only way simply has to change. Please realise that most of the world simply cannot and will not live that way. That does not make them your enemies and they might even make good friends.

"In other words, grow up. The world is not not your playpen."

Wow, was that easy. All I had to do was describe 300 million people in a such a general way that it couldn't possibly have any relevance to anything. Funnily enough, I even kinda noted how off base it was when I commented on an "apparent collective belief," that has no basis in reality--300 million people rarely, if ever, have any collective beliefs. Nor is there any real way to determine if they do.

Oh wait, I didn't do anything here, I just parroted some overly large generalizations that don't accurately reflect what any number of hundreds of millions of people may happen to think.

Will someone please glad hand me for posting some unfounded generalizations?

Sure. Well said! ;-)

hEar hEar!

"I'm trying to maintain a shred of dignity in this world." - Me

Actually..about 100 years ago your post would not have been unfounded. The UK has a lot to answer for in history and certainly have not behaved in a benign way to the rest of the world. People in India, Ireland and other occupied territories at the time would certainly agree with the parallels with how the US is behaving now as how the UK behaved during it's empire days.

The post would have been nearly as unfounded then as it was now because, as Sarge also noted, the generalizations are too large.

It's nearly irrational to extrapolate from whatever x number of people you may have met to 60, or 300, million people.

While I have met Americans who supported the Iraq war, I've also met people from the UK who did as well. Not to mention how Labour got behind it, and remains firmly behind it. I would be foolish to therefore then make generalizations that "the British" need to grow up, or other such nonsense.

Of course, I could comment that the Labour gov't is firmly in favor of going to war, as I have the evidence--they did so, and are still doing so. Just as one could make the comment the American gov't is doing things that the person making the comment disagrees with.

That, while much more accurate, doesn't apply to 60, or 300, million people, and certainly does not allow for the interchangeability of the terms "American," and "American gov't" and "individual Americans."