actually, the word patriotic is from the greek, "
patriotes "fellow countryman," from
patrios "of one's fathers" and not to be snotty but 'braveheart' doesn't hold a torch to greek history and the pathos of man, and the conflicts of being man, question and conflicts which have occurred since the dawn of time and Man, and will continue even to the great beyond.
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Why is it impossible to understand what it feels like to be an American??? is this because you feel under threat of terrorism?????
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ah, i'll answer that one.. NO. are you mad? we ARE NOT AFRAID. WE HAVE NEVER BEEN AFRAID. WE WILL NEVER BE AFRAID.
Its something you might not understand.
Who gives the most aid to other countries?
Who ALWAYS lends a helping hand?
Who ALWAYS has to bail everyone else out?
Who ALWAYS has to take the blame for something?
Who ALWAYS is held to a higher standard?
Who ALWAYS is criticized for its prosperity?
Who ALWAYS has had its borders open, its doors open, its arms open, to the world?
Who ALWAYS has to be the first to stand for something?
Who ALWAYS has to be the last to take credit for something?
Who ALWAYS has to FILL IN THE BLANK.
If we hadn't left isolationism, you would be speaking Deutsch right now.
Please!
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So how many years have we Great Britain lived under the threat or the IRA years and who funded them the irish/americans in NY. noriad and what happened 911 they stopped the funding and what the IRA went hey wait a minute think we will drop arms nothing what so ever to do with our Goverment abailites. Maybe we have had to live with the threat of terrorism here in the UK for far to long and it has become a way of life to us or maybe it's the pick ourself up and dust ourself down attitude that we have.
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well, lets see. the IRA existed why? social politics and internal turmoil when? as a result of what? just WHY did the Irish leave Ireland and come to NY? (hint: send us your weary, your down trodden, your.....) what did you expect them to do when they realized the social and economic freedoms afforded here? you all created the Irish problem -- don't complain!
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"We are blessed with opportunity, freedom, and free will like no other society on earth"
e'hh well I have to dispute this what do you have that no other country has.???? what makes America special????
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LOL! If you have to ask, then you have no clue....
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"For the Average American (and Average Americans have little interest in politics), it is hard to understand why, when they are working hard, trying to put thier kids throiugh school, living a life of minding their own business, people abroad seem to hate our guts."
Surely the Average American is not the only people who feel like this why do you think folks hate your guts?????
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That is a regional and socioeconomic judgment call...... many Americans are ignorant about world history, politics and current events. Many are not. The beauty of the system is that it really doesn't matter-- you can still vote, for right or wrong, and be heard, and chose who you can believe.... the world can scoff and insult us, but they'll do anything to get their hands on as many US dollars as they can. Why is that?
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" - regardless of our internal views and disagreements, Americans will circle their wagons, and strike back hard when threatened from the outside. We generally value our society, the freedoms and liberties it includes, and we will fight for all its worth and all it means to us. Regardless of our liberal/conservative leanings, we are an innately (word?) fiercely patriotic people."
Well if you want to talk about threatned from the outside Great Britain has been invaded over thousands of years and prevailed. We have had the romans,vikings,French& Spanish armadas (the Germans who tried.) It was our spirit and not willing to be ruled by outsiders.
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Don't make me laugh. Who saved your ass in the 1940s? Please.
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"- . Regardless of our liberal/conservative leanings, we are an innately (word?) fiercely patriotic people."
LOL. I'm Scottish we invented the word Patriotic oh and FREEDOM William Wallace. Now I know you will have watched Brave Heart.
Now I don't hate Americans have no reason to although I do think some Americans and other countries are jealous of Great Britain because of our hertiage.
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Your heritage is not unblemished. Lets not bring up the middle ages and the poverty of the commonfolk..... isn't that why there still exists a
"House of Commons" and a "House of Lords?"?
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Allan has served along side many Americans and got on great with them.
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God bless him & you.
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This is what I believe. Nothing has ever been solved by a war all war brings is heartache to the innocnce.
I think it is not a good thing Hamas was brought to power perhaps if Bush/Blair didn't poke their nose in so much it would not drive the ordinary people to vote these types of people into power. Then we would not have to read posts like this.
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this is WAAAAYYYYYYYYY BEFORE Bush and Blair.
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Hamas (حماس), acronym of Harakat al-Muqawama al-Islamiyya (Arabic: حركة المقاومة الاسلامية, literally "Islamic Resistance Movement" and Arabic for 'zeal'), is the largest Palestinian Islamist movement. Hamas is engaged in social welfare activities as well as in violent activities to achieve its political goals. It is listed as a terrorist group by the European Union, Canada, the United States, and Israel; the U.S. State Department provides a list of terrorist actions by Hamas.
Created in 1988, Hamas is ideologically connected to the Muslim Brotherhood movement in Egypt, seeks to establish an Islamic theocracy in the area that is currently Israel, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip. In pursuit of this end, Hamas affirms a right to engage in armed struggle. Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi, a co-founder of Hamas, reportedly stated that the movement's goal is "to remove Israel from the map" [1]. While during the election campaign Hamas dropped its call for the destruction of Israel from its manifesto [2], several Hamas candidates insist that the charter is still in force and often called for Israel to be "wiped off the map" in their campaign speeches [3], [4].
In the Palestinian Legislative Council elections of January 2006, Hamas won 42.9 % of the vote, which gave it a parliamentary majority with 74 of the 132 seats[5],[6]. This outcome has been seen as a major setback for foreign governments attempting to mediate the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The United States has said that it will not deal with Hamas until it renounces its support of suicide bombings and terrorism and accepts Israel's right to exist, in direct contradiction to Hamas' charter as currently written. At the same time, Israeli president Moshe Katsav and Israel's ex-prime minister Shimon Peres have both said that if Hamas will accept Israel's right to exist and give up terror, Israel should negotiate with the organization.
Its attacks targeting Israeli civilians and other human rights abuses have been condemned by the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.[7] During the second Intifada, the Al-Aqsa Intifada, Hamas claimed responsibility for most of the suicide bombings that took place in Israel. Hamas has observed a respite since an attack on the Israeli southern town of Beersheba in August 2004 (15 dead, 125 wounded) and has violated it once since that time in an attack on the same bus station in Aug 2005 (7 wounded).
Like the PLO charter, Hamas's charter calls for complete destruction of Israel.
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I really think you need to rethink the Hamas thing.
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I think oil makes people greedy perhaps Bush should invest in wind farms more.lol.
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Wait a minute here..... who OWNS the oil? Who SELLS the oil? Who SETS the oil prices?
What does OIL have to do with BUSH?
ps don't forget that the colonies came about because of British economic tyrrany.....