Does Europe Hate us? on Discovery channel

[45-70bpcr]

Anyone catch the show on Discovery last night called "Does Europe Hate us?" Pretty disturbing. It is on again next monday night at 9:00 and is worth watching.

Bart

[Scrounger]

We ought to tell Europe to kiss our patootie and to save their own asses in the future; we quit.

[45-70bpcr]

Exactly my thoughts after seeing it.

[shooter575]

Yup,I stayed up to see it. They think we are going to KowTow to them? NOT. I liked it when the interviewer speeking to a group of frogs said "If not for US you would be spreken z Duetch. Guess they will need to deal with their Rabs on their own. I feel my blood pressure going up!!!

[krag35]

I didn't see the show, but will try to catch it next time it's on. The last of my line left that sinking ship over 100 years ago. Next time lets let them settle their own squabbles, might help with their overpopulation problem. Another good point is I need a newer milsurp. Those french made ones are sweet, never fired, only dropped once :-)
krag35

[fatnhappy]

I didn't see the show, but will try to catch it next time it's on. The last of my line left that sinking ship over 100 years ago. Next time lets let them settle their own squabbles, might help with their overpopulation problem. Another good point is I need a newer milsurp. Those french made ones are sweet, never fired, only dropped once :-)
krag35

French Milsurp? I was unaware they even had an Army. Back when Ronald Reagan was President I was one of those annoying exchange students. I spent a year living in Germany, and IMHO, they don't hate us. They absolutly despise us! Funny thing was, the closer you got to the commie border, the more they tolerated Americans.

Piss on 'em. The outright capitulation of Spain after their railroad bombings is the definition of European character these days.

[Bret4207]

Come on you dinosaurs! Don't you know we're stupid and arrogant cowboys with an idiot for a President and a corrupt Government run by druggies and Bible crazed zealots? If it wasn't for Europe civilization would end and it would be our fault. You guys gotta listen to NPR more often. BTW- Our troops in the Balkins that were only going to be there a year 10 years ago are still there. God Bless Bill Clinton the greatest human being that ever lived.....well,except fer Hillary.

[Finn45]

I don't have any idea about that show, but just remember that "Europe" is not all of us literally. If you think that way then I will reconsider my thoughts and base my opinion about US to Michael Moore's films and "documents". That shag haired butthead is quite famous in here as well and way too many people are taking him way too seriously. It's seen on TV so it must be the only truth? I'm for example paying for NRA so what am I then? Very weird stupid European? I know many who would say so. Hillary? Does sHE have a fun club?

[Bret4207]

Finn- I forgot we had brothers over on the other side of the pond. We mean all the Europeans that hate us. Not you. Apologies.

[waksupi]

The media is pretty much the same the world over, and find the loudest malcontents possible to present as representative of an area, or a country. Look at Iraq. The media makes a big deal about religious affliliations in the new government. and we have returning soldiers telling us the people there could care less about religious background. I know I don't ask what church my legislators go to. The talkiing heads enjoy painting with a wide brush, rather than finding facts.

[Buckshot]

..............Yup Waksupi, that's right. The average Joe or Jane on the street wants to work and provide for his family and make a life. Have a Major in the family in Iraq doing military/civilian contractor liaison and he said the regular person on the street is glad we're there and overjoyed to have had the change.

I didn't see the program so I don't know, but would suspect that maybe 'Hate' might be too strong a word. Part of it is probably greed, envy, or avarice. We're still blessed with an abundance of natural resources. We're still (barely) a place where lots of new ideas come from, and we're still personally well off so far as overall population is concerned.

So far as France goes, they were the diplomats of the 19th and early 20th century, and French was the diplomatic language. But in this day and age, English is the international language of government, finance, international communication, and transportation. France has not enjoyed the change.

The French resent the inroads and erosion of thier international position. I believe the balance of Europe still views the United States as an upstart and a country catapulted to our position by WW2. I don't know about Eastern Europe. I think they may still be delirious about being out from under the iron curtain, and are flexing their muscle and trying to become a part of the community. They're kind of maybe following the local leader/concensus?

Probably some of the European citizenry could be upset by 'Americanization' of thier way of life, but change is change. I know the French have a law about not allowing 'Non-French' words into the official language. It's the American film industry that dominates the world and that is a tremendous influence. We're also viewed as too casual about a lot of things. We're a disruption to the norm. While probably most of the younger people don't care, it's the older people in power who do care.

America is still a country with numerous overseas military bases. We are also the only ones with 11 carrier task forces available. We've gotten ourselves involved in some numerous recent military adventures that weren't popular world wide, so we have a new interventionist face the world sees.

It may be nothing more then being the most powerfull, richest, materialistic and influential kid on the block that has'em all peeved. But if things don't change, in the next 10-20 years I doubt that that will be the case any longer.

....................Buckshot

[shooter2]

I think we still have a few friends in Europe. Finn45 points that out well. As for the French, they still have not forgiven us for saving their ass in WWII. I'm with the crowd that thinks we should close most of our bases in "old" Europe and let them fight the next war they get in themselves.

Frankly, I think we are in the middle of a Holy war and that is going to suck up resources for a long time.

[Finn45]

Finn- I forgot we had brothers over on the other side of the pond. We mean all the Europeans that hate us. Not you. Apologies.

I know that, no need for apologies; just wanted to point it out and I think my comment might sound angrier than it actually was. At ease :coffee:.

[45-70bpcr]

So sorry. I posted originally that the show was reairing last night (April 11) at 9:00 p.m. on Discovery. I tuned it to see it again and it was not there! Just looked again on their website and it was reairing on "Discovery Times" which is one of the Discovery group of channels. My apologies if someone missed it because of my error.

Bart

[NVcurmudgeon]

Just as I start to rant about "!@#$%^&* Europe," I have to remind myself that each continent's nations vary. Is Mexico exactly like the USA, or Japan the same as Nepal? Then I have to check my scorecard to get the latest pros and cons of each governments policies. Finally, I decide that only France and Germany, among European nations are on my personal bad guy list AT THIS MOMENT. The former Iron Curtain Soviet satellites are becoming some of our best international friends, Denmark is the only other country in the world that honors American Independence Day, in gratitude for WWII liberation, and Finland has set an example of honest dealing with America for nearly a century. There are probably other European countries equally admirable. In a world where change is the only constant, I have to constantly remind myself to not paint with too broad a brush. In my lifetime Germany has gone from foe to half foe-half friend to foe again. Japan has gone form foe to friend, as has Italy. Russia has gone from foe to friend to major foe to friend to maybe foe again. Maybe we should do away with all governments, I'll bet the peoples would get along fine.

[StarMetal]

Bill,

I'm convinced if we would have finished off Russia at the end of WWII like Patton suggested, and nuked N.Korea and China like McArthur suggested, that we'd be in a better position today. We wouldn't have had all the cold war crap, we probably would have taken Vietnam without the results that happen, and China wouldn't be completing as big on the oil market and making my gasoline prices as high. Then again, maybe it's better we didn't do any of that.

Joe

[Ballistics in Scotland]

Well, some of the above has answered the topic nicely. It begs the question what is "us". I think Europeans and even Third World citizens are a lot better than some Americans at distinguishing a nation from individuals in it. I've been 45 miles from Iraq for a little over four and a half years, among people less cultivated and cosmopolitan than the average Saudi, even, and I've yet to hear anything said against Americans as a whole, or even our solitary American employee. An Arab in Texas should be so lucky.

They know, for example, that stupid and arrogant cowboys, druggies, Bible crazed zealots and druggies are all minorities, and you don't even have idiotic presidents for more than a minority of the time. It's more than a lot of Americans care to know about them. Anybody with a mathematical education, however, can see the disproportionate power of a well-coordinated minority in the US electoral system, and they think democracy as presently constituted produces a sellout to the psychopathic bigot vote.

It would be hard to find two developed nations which are more similar in outlook than the United States and France. In both countries nationalism is strong, hypersensitive, and suspected by much of the world of being linked to self-interest. France does indeed resent its diminished role as the home of diplomatic language and conventions. But isn't this thread about people no longer looking to the United States for an idea of what freedom is, as they so reasonably used to do? The law against use of foreign words in official French can be compared with the state laws against fornication. I hear a certain amount of it goes on.

I have been in France quite often, and seen a great deal of film of the D-day commemoration. I don't think many people could fault the French attitude towards the elderly Americans who actually fought for the liberation of Europe. They just don't see it as imposing any obligation to people who weren't alive then, and who seem better suited to a more vocal role. By an interesting coincidence, the Americans who believe most in France's obligation to execute a sixty-year grovel, are those least inclined to recognise any obligation to compensate native or black Americans.

It has also escaped many people's notice that most of the world has been moving towards a situation in which war between developed nations is impossible. The process is a long way from complete or secure, but economic links and mutual interest are the way to do it, and even the fringes of south-eastern Europe are far safer than they were a decade ago. Beyond the level necessary to deal with Third World threats or minor squabbles, military strength is becoming of almost no importance, and is as divorced from political leverage as physical strength is from civilised adult disputes. As for a "defence" (i.e. attack) budget larger than the next twenty military budgets put together, many of them belonging to nations which feel perfectly adequately defended, it simply makes the US government incapable of defending its own reputation from its own aggressive loony vote.

Sometime after Spain's critics learned all they wanted to know and went off to tell us about it, quite a bit of evidence emerged that the Madrid railway bombings were the work of a Moroccan nationalist movement with only the most tenuous communication with al-Quaeda, and none whatever with Iraq. The Aznar government fell, and Spain left the coalition of the paid-for, because he did exactly what President Bush did, by blaming the enemy he most wanted to attack, guilty or not. Only that was the entirely domestic Basque nationalists. He produced his analysts too.