I'm not really opposing your view, only saying that it puts too much on Bush. I was raised overseas in several countries and am very aware that, as I said, "Yankee go home" is a lot older than the Bush presidency.
Ricter is right, i did alot of travelling overseas when i was younger, and when i was still living in Canada, and there was a noticeable difference in the way people would treat you when you made it clear you were a Canadian, this was before Bush ever took office, Americans were universally hated abroad long before bush ever took office. It is obviously alot worse after Bush, but America didnt exactly have a positive image abroad to begin with.
hah Americans always tell people they are Canadians when travelling abroad. EVERYBODY knows that. My neighbor just got back from Spain where he did just that
I don't do that, though most of the time I leave from a Canadian airport and could get away with it. But I still have a US passport so my lie wouldn't hold up under scrutiny. I'm a proud American citizen and not afraid to tell people that, but with foreigners I make a joke that I "gave up" my US citizenship just during the Bush years. That gets laughs. I also don't travel to countries run by Muslim fundamentalists--a beheading can ruin an entire trip.
Hey, no problem, I understand your view. What I observed was .... the -ve sentiment toward America/Americans, though existing in noticeable quantity prior to late 2002, went into a vertical bullmarket in 2003. You stated that, "it puts too much on Bush" .... lied about weapons of mass destruction bribed several countries to go along with the so called coalition totally fcked up the country (Iraq) with millions of lives ruined or made drastically difficult. 200k to 1 mil killed. sent Israel into a state of glee with the unwritten new LAW aborning that if you didn't like someone, you could just make up a rumor and then go steal everything from him by force, and then fck him in the ass and videotape it too. Giving this much free rein to Israel takes Uncle George's devilishness to a stratospheric level. Uncle George, given the weapons at his disposal could/would make Hitler look like a fckin SAINT. In the eyes of KARMA, Uncle George would give the Devil serious competition and if the 2 were to meet face to face, Vegas odds would be 50-50.
And staying in line with the thread's underlying concept .... 91% of americans went into glee and rapture and supported Uncle George. The same 91% also right here at ET as ought to be obvious by the threads in this forum. Now the tables have turned and there's a new sherrrrriffff in town and his name is KARMA. Say what? Bribe him? With what? Credit? Goodluck!!!! And now we want to attack Iran!!!!!!!!!!!!! The Founding Fathers, were they to come alive for just a minute, would unanimously say, "burn this fckin disease to the ground; it ain't the america we built"
>>>> Americans were universally hated abroad long before bush ever took office. It is obviously alot worse after Bush, but America didnt exactly have a positive image abroad to begin with.<<<< To understand the before and after better, try this ... before Bush -ve sentiment was a 50 year horizontal consolidation after Bush it was a BREAKOUT with vertical bars skyhigh.
While unemployment (broader variety) is at 20-22%, dig this ... if the FOUNDING FATHERS were to wake up for an instant, this would kill them in a heartbeat ..... http://costofwar.com/