Those Arrogant Americans

Those Arrogant Americans

James Lewis James Lewis Mon Apr 6, 6:12 am ET

We have a rock star president who for the first time in American history fired the President of a private corporation, General Motors, then immediately flew to Europe with an entourage of 500 courtiers and a worshipful media, bowed waist-deep to the King of Saudi Arabia, and proceeded to accuse his own country of arrogance.

In France, of all places.

Does anybody else think this guy is shockingly ignorant? I wonder if he has every really talked to a concentration camp survivor, or a Cuban refugee, or a boat person from Vietnam? Or a Soviet dissident. Or a survivor or Mao's purges.

Not to mention families with fallen American soldiers in the graveyards. Yes, he's going to Normandie, but will he apologize for our arrogance there, too? Does he really understand anything beyond the PC history of the world? Or will he just lie in his photo op at the American Cemetery at Normandy?

Ahhh, those arrogant Americans. First they rebel against King George III and all the crowned heads of Europe. Then they welcome tens of millions of poor and persecuted people from the Old World. Then they fail to bow down to Europe's greatest figures -- from Napoleon and Otto von Bismarck to the Kaiser, Hitler and Stalin. Then they fight a civil war, losing half a million people to liberate black people in America. Then they diss the man the BBC considers to be the greatest philosopher ever, one Karl Marx, whose followers killed 100 million innocents in the 20th century. And then, to top it all off, they liberate both the Western half of Europe (in 1946) and the Eastern half (in 1989).

What arrogance these Americans have. Either that, or a very, very -- no, stunningly -- ignorant man was just elected president. What kind of man has such an obsessive need to put down his own country? Especially given our real history? Has he ever read an honest history book?

Not to mention families with fallen American soldiers in the graveyards. Yes, he's going to Normandie, but will he apologize for our arrogance there, too? Does he really understand anything beyond the PC history of the world? Or will he just lie in his photo op at the American Cemetery at Normandy?


You are the one lacking in the history twerp. America wouldn't have done a damn thing for the French if Japan hadn't forced us in to the fray. We didn't lift a finger when Hitler took france.

Actually America had allocated billions worth of materials to the European front - including France, which received about 20% of those materials. (Lend-Lease) Roosevelt grew increasingly frustrated with the ongoing isolationist bent of the American public and many in Congress - Pearl Harbor was the event that broke that post WWI mentality and allowed him to openly unleash the full force of the American military machine against both Japan and Nazi Germany - but America was in fact, deeply involved in the European conflict prior to Pearl Harbor, but in a more secretive way. There was also a smaller scale lend-lease type program that send significant naval supplies to the European war efforts that was passed about a year prior to Lend-Lease.

On a somewhat interesting historical side note, the United Kingdom made its final payment to the United States for the Lend-Lease funds in 2006, at which time the British government formally thanked the United States for its WWII wartime support.

Not to mention that post WW I and the great depression left the US financially strapped. It wasn't easy to go to war. And anyways when we liberated Paris the french ladies were making german babies so I'm no so sure we should have interfered.

Ya OK I guess I could back peddle a step or two on the lend lease..

Personal note... When I was a kid up on Orcas Island I met Henry Kaiser the guy that built the Liberty Ships. He lived about a mile down the beach from our place. He was a very nice man.

You can't blame Obama for firing the head of GM. Should have been done a long time ago. And it's not a private corporation--not anymore. When they came, hat in hand, to DC begging for money, they lost their right to complain.

When the drunken 20-year-old who still lives at home asks mom or dad for a few bucks, he gets to enjoy a lecture on getting his act together. That's fair. If he doesn't like it he can move out and get a real job.

Likewise, GM should have never asked for money. They should put their heads together and succeed or fail.


I don't even see the point. Toyota has them in a landslide. Toyota and Hondas will be the primary cars on the road (and in my driveway) for decades.


Also, don't harp so much on France. They are our oldest ally. They not only helped us beat the snobby British, but they gave us the Statue of Liberty.


Finally, spend a week with British women and then a week with French women.


You'll be fond of France.

Well done.

I would like to add to the mix, vis a vis the bow to the Saudi king, and wonder out loud why the NYTimes, WashCompost, LATimes were oblivious to same. Back in '94 the NYT scolded Clinton for a nod to the Japanese Emperor:
Hot Air » Blog Archive » Flashback: NYT scolded Clinton for almost bowing to royalty
nytimes scolded Clinton for nod to Jap emperor, but gives Obama a pass on bow to king

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People are most conservative on issues that they know most about. --Ann Coulter

I concur. While the French have had their flaws (every country does) they helped us win our freedom at the beginning, and instead of asking us for payback then, they gave us a gift to show they will always be our allies (which they have honored even when we are idiots), the Statue of Liberty. Being an ally doesn't mean agreeing, it doesn't even mean helping in every situation, it means helping to defend us when we are being attacked. Allies are like best friends (real ones not the phony ones that pretend to like you even if you slap them across the face). Calling us arrogant isn't betraying us, and sadly it's true, we are an arrogant country. Arrogance isn't even really a flaw to everyone, I for one think it has it's place in life. However just because our best friends are telling us that does not make them enemies, it's like when you have some food on your face and your best friend says there's a spot on your face, same thing.

The GM thing, all our companies in the US need that slap in the face lately, not just them. They need to know we aren't going to just let them continue to produce sub-par products and pay them for it.

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If you can dream it, I can code it.
Every hand's a winner, and every hands a loser, the best you could hope for is to die in your sleep.

Orcas - my own neck of the woods! Hoping to do some quality boating around that area over the summer.

Only because you don't understand what they're saying about you.

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[quote=WillowTree;1137757] I must mention the famous, if apocryphal, Black Jack Pershing quote, as the American Expeditionary Forces came ashore: "Lafayette, we are here."

And, sorry, I can't resist:

The AP and UPI reported that the French Government announced after the London bombings that it has raised its terror alert level from Run to Hide. The only two higher levels in France are Surrender and Collaborate. The rise in the alert level was precipitated by a recent fire which destroyed France's white flag factory, effectively disabling their military.

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People are most conservative on issues that they know most about. --Ann Coulter

Oooh ... boating is fun. When I was young we had a lot of boating in the neighborhood I spent most of my childhood, though it was mostly on Lake Washington or trips to Eastern Washington (Columbia River canoe trips!). My dad had a little fishing dingy and we went out almost every weekend in the summer.

__________________
If you can dream it, I can code it.
Every hand's a winner, and every hands a loser, the best you could hope for is to die in your sleep.

No I won't ever be fond of France!

France took oil for food money from Saddam? Did you forget that? Did you forget that they and Germany voted against the US in the UN every single solitary time we tried to handle the matter of Iraq? Sure you did. You are one of the blame America first crowd. Oh,, and then there's the little matter of France refusing to allow us to use their air space.. I believe that was when we the US were trying to liberate Kuwait.. I could be wrong..but I mock France piss on em..

We lived right behind Scull Island in West Sound. Orcas to Deer Harbor was my turf as a youngster.