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interesting read. My view is that we left their bullsh!t a few hundred years ago, kick their butts at everything under the sun and they still can't get over it. If the EU hates us that much, let 'em. The best way to turn then inside out is to continue to get better and better at what we do. The only good thing that came out of England were the first AMERICANS.....

I tend to agree...My father is British, so our family has many chance to go over to the old 'homeland' on an occasion or two. Every once in a while, I'll come across someone who has to verbalize something about the 'dirty Yanks', but generally speaking, everyone is polite and is glad to have Americans on their side...I have many acquaintance there - some of the most conservative, and God fearing people I know - yet unfortunately, are quite pacifist and hesitate to support us in our endeavour in the middle east. But it's all politics, and we move on to things that are more important in our friendships. If the verbal/physical attacks were as prevalent as described in the article, we would be hearing about this more. I also have several friends and acquaintances that travel and do business in Europe. Every once in a while, they get a brief exchange or could shoulder or two, but in general, they are received politely, and enjoy their stay.

Gathering as much background as I can get without raising any hackles, the impression that I get is that most of the attitudes truly come from an environment and a media that bombards them 24 hrs. a day with ant-American/Jewish sentiment. I guarantee you if we were under the same duress, many of the us would eventually get the same notions. This is why it is critical that there is an overwhelming victory in Iraq and Afghanistan, and hope for a complete turn around and acceptance of the local people to help sink into the heads of the Europeans that we don't have alterior motives. We will never get to that point if we give up and go another direction...I don't think I could handle 4 or 8 years of Kerry going around the world and apologizing and humiliating ourselves....

Quality was a hallmark of British goods up until the 70's and Japanese goods were generally classified as junk.. Now it is hard to find anything the Brits make that could wear the badge of quality...their luxury cars for instance have been bought by American firms. The Japanese on the other hand emit quality in all their goods from cars to electronic items. Interesting switch isn't it??