I have to agree with you on the issue as a whole. We, Americans, that is, are extremely ignorant of world affairs. I consider myself a well-informed person, but I only have a decent understanding of the situations in a few countries: Mexico, England, and maybe Russia. I know a little about the other English-speaking countries, Germany, France, and about a half dozen other European/Asia countries, but not nearly enough to make the kind of decisions and exert the kind of power America seems to on a regular basis. Fact is, though, that Americans get blamed for a lot that isn;t their fault. This nation isn't anywhere near perfect, but how many could do much better. Ignorance, misunderstanding, etc. are all very human traits. Okay, I'm geting a bit defensive, let's cool off, okay then...let's talk about World War II.

I don't know many British people, and I wasn't around sixty years ago (and I doubt anyone n this board was). However, my understanding of the events in World War II lead me to believe that the attitudes towards the American involvement in that War was unfair. From what I learned in European history (perhaps a biased class, but considering it was in a school run by French nuns taught by a man who currently lives in Poland with an Asian wife), American isolationism and Britsh/French appeasement of Germany were equally wrong. The difference was, the British felt threatened three or four years too late while the Americans were five or six years late. The Russians had even worse problems, and they had to wait until 1944, when they were starting to turn things around on their own, until their Allies decided to make it a two front war. What about Czechoslovakia?

All I'm saying is, evey person, every country, has a bias, and Americans just mess up more because we have the most to mess up with. But maybe that's just my americentric opinion. I could be, and probably am, wrong, but I have to stick with my impressions until someone show me a better way. I'm going to go look at those news sources now.