Hello, I pretty much agree with whoever it was who said that this discussion has ventured too far off topic, so I will only make this one comment. Imperialism or what you want to call whatever is creating strong anti-American feelings in all over the world goes a fair bit beyond opening new MacDonald restuarants: Global Interventions since 1945: China 45-51, France 47, Marshall Islands 46-58, Italy 47-70s, Greece 47-49, Philippines 45-53, Korea 45-53, Albania 49-53, Eastern Europe 48-56, Germany 50s, Iran 53, Guatemala 53-90s, Costa Rica 50s, 70-71, Middle East 56-58, Indonesia 57-58, Haiti 59, Western Europe 50s-60s, British Guiana 53-64, Iraq 58-63, Soviet Union 40s-60s, Vietnam 45-73, Cambodia 55-73, Laos 57-73, Thailand 65-73, Ecuador 60-63, Congo-Zaire 77-78, France-Algeria 60s, Brazil 61-63, Peru 65, Dominican Republic 63-65, Cuba 59-, Indonesia 65, Ghana 66, Uruguay 69-72, Chile 64-73, Greece 67-74, South Africa 60s-80s, Bolivia 64-75, Australia 72-75, Iraq 72-75, Portugal 74-76, East Timor 75-99, Angola 75-80s, Jamaica 76, Honduras 80s, Nicaragua 78-90s, Philippines 70s, Seychelles 79-81, South Yemen 79-84, South Korea 80, Chad 81-82, Grenada 79-83, Suriname 82-84, Libya 81-89, Fiji 87, Panama 89, Afghanistan 79-92, El Salvador 80-92, Haiti 87-94, Bulgaria 90-91, Albania 91-92, Somalia 93, Iraq 90s, Peru 90s, Mexico 90s, Colombia 90s, Yugoslavia 95-99. The interventions took the form of bombings in 25 cases: China 45-46, Korea/China 50-53, Guatemala 54, Indonesia 58, Cuba 60-61, Guatemala 60, Vietnam 61-73, Congo 64, Peru 65, Laos 64-73, Cambodia 69-70, Guatemala 67-69, Grenada 83, Lebanon-Syria 83-84, Libya 86, El Salvador 80s, Nicaragua 80s, Iran 87, Panama 89, Iraq 91-, Kuwait 91, Somalia 93, Sudan 98, Afghanistan 98, Yugoslavia 99. Assassinations, attempted or successful, of leaders including heads of state, were tried in 35 cases, and assistance in torture in 11 countries (Greece, Iran, Germany, Vietnam, Bolivia, Uruguay, Brazil, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Panama). Very vehement are the actions against leaders who once worked with the USA because they had an enemy in common: Pol Pot, Manuel Noriega, Saddam Hussein, Mohammed Aidid and Osama bin Laden. Countries where USA "perverted elections", ie interfering with a democratic process: Italy 48-70s, Lebanon 50s, Indonesia 55, Vietnam 55, Guayana 53-64, Japan 58-70s, Nepal 59, Laos 60, Brazil 62, Dominican Republic 62, Guatemala 63, Bolivia 66, Chile 64-70, Portugal 74-5, Australia 74-5, Jamaica 76, Panama 84, 89, Nicaragua 84,90, Haiti 87-88, Bulgaria 91-92, Russia 96, Mongolia 96, Bosnia 98.

You know, I'm never surprised yet somehow I still find it somewhat shocking that America attracts so much scorn and disdain for policies and practices that nearly every country is to blame for.

Just curious: Which policies are you talking about which "nearly every country is to blame for" but which you think are only credited to USA?

I mean, there are a lot of problems in the world, and some of the biggest ones are hardly America's fault.

A pretty strange argument, I must say.

The American cultural presence in Europe and Japan could possibly stem from the fact that, left to their own nationalistic tendencies and combined with America's own then-isolationists policies in the first >half of the 20th century, Germany and Japan tried to take over the frickin >world,

Please remember that USA supported both Japan and Germany a fair share of the way.

South America and Africa are rife with governments so corrupt that entire continents sometimes seem on the verge of collapse.

Which, of course, USA has always been a solid suporter of. The most horrible example comming to my mind is probably Mobutu in Congo whom George Bush, the oldest one, called "Our greatest friend in Africa" even though he was a cruel dictator who robbed the country of billions of dollars. And there is the cases where you are absolutely right, USA is not responsible for creating the problems like in Rwanda which lead to almost one million massacred in 1994, but were directly responsible for stopping solutions which could have prevented it. And so on the list goes. It's interesting how often people brush of critism of USA by saying "Hey, Starbuck/Blockbuster/MacDonalds/etc are not so bad! If you don't like it, it's your free choice not to support them".

This country's basic principles of free speech alone set it apart from every other country in the world,

You must be joking... I'm sorry, but I think you are living in an absolute fantasy world. Thanks. _________________________________________________________________ Chat with friends online, try MSN Messenger: http://messenger.msn.com