Quote:
Originally Posted by JohnW
Well, I think it was two world wars which pretty much bankrupted Britain. I suppose you could argue that we were playing world policeman and saving all our 'good friends' in Europe from the mighty German Army. But it was only a matter of time before Hitler turned his eye upon Britain, and we were very much aware of that, so it was really a self preservation thing. Up until then the Brits were doing very nicely thank you, plundering every country that they colonised.
Most of the land in the USA today was stolen from the Red Indians - by, oh that's right, Europeans, mainly Brits, Frenchmen and Spaniards. I suppose Hawaii want out of the Union.
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I have many American friends; I used to get into serious drinking sessions with members of the US Navy and Marine Corps - we had great discussions and even better arguments. Like all Americans, they wanted to be liked. Sometimes, the question would arise from them "Why do many in the world not like us?". I usually waffled and hummed my way out of that one.
However, if I had a statement such as the one above, I would have replied quite simply - because you talk a load of b*ll*cks. While the US may well have been the prime defender of Western post-1945 interests, it's record prior to that was quite simply, awful.
1) Unlike the UK, the US did not enter WW2 because it was the right thing to do; it entered because it was attacked by Japan and Hitler subsequently declared war on them. If He had not made that mistake, then the US would not have become involved in the European war - it simply would have had no reason to do so and would have been quite happy to see the Russians and the British do the fighting while they stood idly by.
2) Similarily, the US did not enter WW1 until 1917 and then at the point when losses of US civilians on passenger liners became unacceptable. As in WW2, Britain had the option of staying out of this conflict; we could have ignored any treaty obligation and certainly we had no reason whatsoever to fight over Belgian neutrality. The US did nothing.
3) The British in North America went no further than the 13 Eastern seaboard colonies; we had treaties with the native indians which were mutually respected to the extent that it was only with their assistance that the French (a far larger country than Britain) were defeated in the 7 years war.. Had that happened, JW, you would not now be on the Accy web - you would be on the Boulogne or the Toulouse web, gibbering away in Frenchy. The drive west, from the Ohio River to the Rockies- and the subsequent murder, rape and pillage and then land grab all occured in the 19th century under US, not British colonial auspices.