Yoj wrote
You make a lot of good points here, CatNipped. However, many other
countries, especially Canada, came to our aid after the 9-11 attacks.

I also think that one reason some people resent the United States is that
many Americans keep telling them they should be grateful to us. Telling
someone they must be grateful is a sure way to generate resentment. So is
constantly telling someone else we are better than they are. I consider
myself to be a patriotic American, but I would not dream of telling someone
in or from another country that this is the "best country in the world". I
know many people who do that. Ideally, everyone should feel that their
country is the best, but they shouldn't go around telling that to people in
other countries.

Let me give you one example of the way to make people's blood boil,
and to get anti-American feeling.

On one of the other cat newsgroups someone posted and said that "The
English would never have supported the Americans if it had not been for
all the English who died in the towers at 9/11".

The English have supported the Americans for many years, and I for one
did not know there were any English who died in the towers at 9/11. But
it is this type of remark that makes people start to wonder.

Another remark made recently by an American politician [ok, why would
I take a politician seriously ] is that Europe was not trying hard
enough to stop terrorism. Remember that we have been fighting terrorism
for forty years, and at times pleading with the Americans to stop
certain Americans from supporting terrorism financially [collections for
the IRA, for example]. It appeared to take 9/11 for the Americans to
actually appreciate the problem: we have had too many bombs in the UK
not to take terrorism seriously.

If you want people not to criticise Americans one method is to stop
some of the unfortunate critical remarks made by Americans. Terrorism,
for example, is a global problem. Sure the US is now fighting it
whole-heartedly, but so are many other nations.

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