What other countries think about us, USA

[RC]

http://www.yourfilehost.com/media.php?cat=video&file=5044fuckingusa.wmv

[Jemmons]

1. Doesn't matter what they think about the US in North Korea, and

it probably don't matter any more what people in the UK, Spain, Denmark and the rest of Europe thinks. If Europe is going to help out the US - say in a currency crisis - she is going to do that solely for her own sake. The allies of the US are there for the benefits that it brings and they will be gone with the wind as soon as the relationship has no perks.

[RC]

2. Sure, What ever you say.

It wasn't that way up until 2001. The U.S. had real allies.

[cyclezealot]

3. We live in the South of France now.

First of all. THeir feelings about the US government, has no effect upon their feelings for the American people . TOo many have traveled to the US and consider Americans, sometimes uninformed,but still good people. If anything , after a trashing of US government policy, they likely will invite you into their homes.
But, in regards to US policy. They are worried sick and hope we become rational again , so that we can take our rightful place in the world. That is my experience upon reading EU/UK press and upon meeting Europeans.

[BigYawn]

4. France has been rescued from nazi menace by UK & US ...so

they should be grateful they can still speak French
instead of German.

[Doctor_J]

6. That was a long time ago, BY

and they WERE grateful until a lying, cowardly, bellicose, stupid, drunken ne'er-do-well became the face we show to the world. On the upside, as soon as Smirk and the neocon juggernaut has been dislodged from the government, things will return to normalcy pronto.

[BigYawn]

7. I agree US will be more popular when a democrat wins the WH....

but believe me the French will never refuse to take
your greenbacks at any store, any eaterie, any place
of business, etc. I have visited France 3 times during
democratic and republican periods, and I found the same
jealousy of Americans everytime.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

17. Jealousy? Or contempt for Americans with a superiority complex?

My one visit to France was during DeGaulle's tenure, when the French supposedly hated Americans.

I made an attempt to speak French and expressed interest in and curiosity about their culture, and the people were friendly and helpful, even in Paris.

Let's see, the French have a thousand-year-old civilization, fine cuisine, fine wines, a lovely countryside, gracious cities, and national health care, and they "jealous" of Americans because...?

[BigYawn]

28. Its the penis envy, we have bigger military, bigger cars, bigger homes,

bigger economy, bigger influence in the world, bigger foreign aid,
bigger people speaking English in the world than French, bigger aid
to fight AIDS in Africa, bigger (vastly) Nobel prize winners, on
and on and on......

[AFA]

38. penis envy

The penis envy of bigger military, bigger cars, and bigger houses is all yours, friend. Nobody in the south of France gives a shit about your cheap McMansions, ugly overbuilt cars, and worship of all things a dollar will buy. They have real, functioning penises there. Being the world’s biggest authoritarian asshole, while trying to convince a population up to its eyeballs in debt that buying the crap they see on TV is their birthright, is a uniquely American goal and you are welcome to it. If that makes you feel like you’re better off than anyone else, go for it. I emigrated four years ago when it became clear that America’s future as a dying, fascist, one-time superpower was a given. The more I read here, the more I think I escaped just in the nick of time.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

41. Yup, it's the arrogance all right.

:eyes:

[bvar22]

20. I've never had my money refused anywhere....

"...at any store, any eaterie, any place
of business, etc." in any country including the US.

Why do you use this to criticize just the French?
This IS a bigoted Right Wing Hate the French talking point.

Have you ever refused to take someone's money at your place of business?

[BigYawn]

29. Why is when you don't agree with something it is dismissed as right wing

talking points? And by the way I really don't hate the French.
I have a lot of good to say about France and the French. This
silly argument started when some one from France started putting
USA down in this thread, when I pointed out to him that if it was'nt
for the USA and UK, France may still be under German occupation. I
guess that got him roiled up. But facts are facts.

[bvar22]

40. They wouldn't be under German occupation...

They would be under Soviet occupation.

[tn-guy]

27. Wow! Time to read history.

I'll have to take exception to the assertion that the French were grateful to the US and UK for our efforts in WWII to redeem freedom for France. Read the history of the North Africa campaign, or the endless turf wars and petty demands orchestrated by de Gaulle or everyday soldiers diaries from D-Day throughout the rest of the war. You will find that while many everyday French were grateful for liberation, an equal number were resentful of the US within weeks, and that French politicians and military leaders were downright hostile to allied interests.

Anyone who seriously maintains that France is or ever was a long-standing, stalwart ally of the US is woefully ignorant of history. We have been allies of convenience on a few occasions, only when one side or the other was in desperate straights and helping the other served some larger aim.

[Jemmons]

9. Oh God! Not that hoary old "We saved you from Nazi domination

so everything we do is fine!" chant again.

The USA did not enter WW2 voluntarily, both Japan and Germany declared war upon it. It happily sat on its hands while London burned.

The participation of the USA in the European theatre helped shorten the war considerably, and for that unintended circumstance, we Europeans are thankful. The British, with the help the Empire, would inevitably have defeated the Germans - if only because of the material thus made available.

The Russians did more to defeat the German forces, and paid an enormously higher price, than did the Americans.

Germany was almost completely out of the materials necessary to waging war by 1942, and could not have held all Europe at the point of a gun for the rest of time. The French, Dutch, Belgian, etc. resistance would have seen to that.

The USA's contribution to WW1 was confined to a very few battles over the space of less than a year. The first American campaign was, as I understand it, in August 1918, (Because Pershing would not allow American troops to fight under the command of the British or French.) The armistice was in November 1918. The American presence made a difference only because of the fact that all the other combatants were on their last legs, (and the war material they brought with them,) but it was not the deciding influence in Allied victory.

So, for God's sake, put that hoary old myth to bed. No one who has read any history is likely to believe it.





Courtesy of Kim

[BigYawn]

11. Exactly which country did the "resistance" liberated from German

occupation? Have you visited the American soldiers
cemeteries in Europe? Not only you Europeans were incapable
of defeating Hitler, you would also have been taken over by
communist Soviets without American counterbalance to soviet
tanks. Have you forgotten how easily Hungarian revolt was
crushed by the Soviet tanks?

[Jemmons]

13. Get your facts straight

US wounded: 300.000
USSR wounded: 18.000.000
US dead: 300.000
USSR dead: 9.000.000

You think that the USSR troops were not as lucky?


source:
http://web.jjay.cuny.edu/~jobrien/reference/ob62.html

[Name removed]

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[Jemmons]

31. Ah yes - how could i forget that the average american

works hard and selflessly all day to pay for the millitary budget, so that the US can be the policeman of the world. He does so because he loves his freedom and because he believe in the ideals that his nation was build upon. If only the rest of the world could se things like he does everybody would love america like he does.

Now go play in the trafic.

[High Plains]

33. What is this crap doing on a progressive discussion board?

If you wonder why people call you right-wing it's because you're sure sounding like one.

And the Ugly American, to boot.

[Jemmons]

37. Sorry - I seriosly thought i didnt need the

:sarcasm: smiley for that one. Obviously wrong.

[cyclezealot]

14. don't see relevance to today's world

US saved all of Europe. Fascism effected all from Moscow to Sicily. Europe today is ready to work for a safe /free world. In fact fills those ideals better than Bush's corporatism.

[BigYawn]

23. True, but in order to exercise your ideals, first you have to be freed

from such people as Hitler and Stalin.

[LynnTheDem]

15. Oy.

Ignorance is non-partisan.

[cyclezealot]

19. Criuising thro French cemeteries

The monuments to the war dead. WWII is listed as the resistance. Looks like lots of resistance dead to me. almost equal to WWI. Yes, collaborators, but then all wars experience that when occupied.

[Le Taz Hot]

16. How quickly we forget

the French resistance with whose help "WE" would not have won that war. Dude, read a frickin' book. :grr:

[BigYawn]

24. Dude, French have lost every war since Napoleon....

They lost WW I, WW II, IndoChina, Africa, .....
on and on.

[Tom Bombadil]

42. What planet do you live on

where the French lost WW1!! I suppose I dreamed up the idea that at the cessation of hostilities in 1918 Marshal Foch (Frenchman) was the supreme commander of the victorious allied forces or that the armistice was agreed on his own flipping train carriage.

Go away and learn some history.

[ragin_acadian]

39. since France gave us material and military aid during

the revolutionary war, perhaps we should be grateful that we pronounce "schedule" correctly(?), and have pop-tarts instead of crumpets and scones. :sarcasm:

your statement is trite, and ethnocentric. the WORLD banded together to defeat the nazi menace, this included the Canadians, Soviets, French Underground, Australians, etc. - maybe the French should be grateful for the generation that defeated the axis powers, as should we.

[BigYawn]

5. Mr. Jemmons, you are exactly correct....I often preach to my kids not to

be deterred by those who do not pay their bills.
I have travelled to atleast two dozen countries
and not once did anyone refuse to take my greenbacks.

[Jemmons]

8. Im not shure what your point is regarding paying bills

But regarding the WWII i think it is safe to say that nobody in Europe feel in debt because of what the US did for her own sake and for gold.

[BigYawn]

10. My point is, if others make fun of you or disagree with you or dislike

you, it should not stop you from doing what you think is
right. Especially if they do not pay your bills.

That also applies to countries. Many countries do not
like USA. But that should not stop US to do what is best
for US. No other country sends us foreign aid, so why
worry about world opinion which is useless to us?

[Jemmons]

12. Well actually everybody sends you foreign aid.

At the moment they have to because oil is traded in dollars and have been since Kissinger made that a condition for stocking the saudis armed forces with american made weapons. Every nation have to have oil and as oil is traded in dollars and everybody have to buy those and hold a nice amount of them. China and Japan holds huge amounts. Those dollar bills are IOUs from the US government, but they dont have a fixed value. As more bills are printed they are worth less. When any other country prints more bills the same nation "pays" in terms of depreciation of the currency. When the US prints more bills the US and everybody else pays.
How did you think that you could afford the big military spending and the War in Iraq? The US dont make anything which is sold outside the US anymore. Most production has moved to mexico and asia and the sad truth is that the US is either on social support or just looting depending on how you chose to view it.

[Name removed]

25. Deleted message

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[Arugula Latte]

30. Hey Big Yawn

Good screen name, by the way. Quite fitting.

Anyway, do you get down on your knees and thank the French for saving OUR asses in the Revolutionary War? There likely would not be an America were it not for Lafayette et al.

Also, did you know that that foreign aid the U.S. provides the rest of the world is relativly small per capita? That's right, other, smaller countries spend much, much more of their money as a percentage of the population than we do.

BTW, Mr. Tough Talker, if you're so happy to be an American, why aren't you fighting for your president in Iraq?

[Starbucks Anarchist]

34. Yikes.

Did it ever occur to you that people in foreign countries might not need to drive cars as big as a house?

Or that their homes need not be giant McMansions?

Or that they don't need an economy truly owned and controlled by only 5% of the population?

Or that they don't need a supersized military because they don't invade other countries for empire?

[RagingInMiami]

35. Unemployment rate in this country only counts those who collect

unemployment compensation. Once that runs out (usually 26 weeks), they're not unemployed anymore in the eyes of the system. So the unemployment rate in this country is very misleading.

France has a lower infant mortality rate, teenage pregnancy rate, lower rate of people afflicted with HIV/AIDS (since you mentioned AIDS), lower rate of people who die from AIDS, higher literacy rate and higher life expectancy rate.

They also have some of the sexiest women on this planet, not to mention excellent cheeses, breads and wine. It's not just Freedom Fries.


http://www.geographyiq.com/ranking/rankings.htm

[Starbucks Anarchist]

36. Not to mention multilingualism and their film industry.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

18. People took DOLLARS in foreign countries?

When did you travel, 1946?

[FlaGranny]

21. I think he's talking about the

repayment of European national debts after WWII. He seems to think that Americans should be able to travel to Europe without charge for meals and lodging. Probably thinks individual Europeans should shoulder the debt of their war-torn countries of 60-65 years ago.

[BigYawn]

26. Yes, they were delighted to take my American Express T Checks...

and tipping in dollar bills always brings a huge smile
to every waiter, busboy and porter in Europe.

Last travel through Europe was in 2001. Before that about
every 5 years.

[magellan]

32. Well, thanks heaps

...for confirming the myth of the Ugly American as you no doubt did during your time abroad.