But I Thought We Were Friends, Damn it!

I was looking at some stupid videos today on YouTube, when I came across a video of 3 Iraqis being monitored through night vision. I began reading the comments left for this video and they made me feel so cut off! It was like someone throwing a bucket of “anti-American” red paint all over me. Just a couple of examples: (Not edited)

“Yeah don't forget Canada,we fucking hate America, we burned the whitehouse down before and we can do it again,lol America ain't that great, Russia alone can waste America. The whole world against America would be a sinch, just send every nuke to America, what is America going to do? lol they they won't know who to nuke first. Who is America going to nuke? Canada. lol...yeah I'd like to see that.lol “

“ Americans seem to buy their own bullshit so much that they think they are saving the world against terrorism, when in fact they are the terrorists. Invading countries for oil, destroying the environment, exploiting the worlds resources and not too mention just running around being by far the fattest people on Earth, I mean for fuck sake how many cheese burgers is enough haha. We could save the food shortage if we just sent all the obese Americans to Africa hahahah. “

It’s like when you walk into a room where everyone has been talking about you, and you know it. That feeling of being completely alone and vulnerable sets in. I expect things like that from the French and Italians, but Canadians? Brits? Germans? It wasn’t just these few comments on this one site either, I googled European anti-American and found site upon site about it. One can’t help but to feel a little betrayed. I had to remind myself that they hate America for what its doing and not who it is, I felt a little better. My family all came from England and has lived in America since the early 1600s. They fought in the American Revolution, the War of 1812, the Civil War, the Mexican War… They helped shape this country, forgive me for having a little pride in the fact that I’m American. I feel like other countries just look at us as dumb Americans that blindly support its leader, who can’t see what’s going on right in front of them. That’s such a generalized view, one that doesn’t, or at least, I hope doesn’t reflect me. We’re one of the youngest modern countries in the world; we’re only 230 years old. Compare that to the majority of Europe and we’re teenagers. We’re still trying to figure things out. Europe has been no stranger to mistakes either… especially Eastern Europe. It happens; we’re just trying to get through this like everything else. I guess no one else seems to have noticed that Bush’s approval rating is around 46%... and falling. Obviously most of us aren’t supporting the oaf. Most of us don’t support the war but we support our troops- maybe that’s seen to others as supporting the war... I don’t think it is. Obviously I can’t speak for everyone and there are those that strongly support the war and all that jazz, but I just can’t defend a war that no one has said what it’s REALLY all about. We are fed a bit-o-propaganda here and there but I think most of us are smarter than that. I think that the majority of us are waiting for the 2008 elections so we can try to mend it. I personally feel a little misled about the war in the first place but now we’re there and we have to try to stabilize what we ripped apart. There are those that will say “But there are terrorists there, they are killing our soldiers! You’re just un-American!” But that’s not why we went in; we went in because “Saddam had WMD!
Honestly I can’t really say I don’t support it or I do support it, I don’t have enough information as a regular citizen to clearly make a true black and white decision. The point is- We aren’t all being blindly led down the road with American Flags Duct taped to our hands while singing the national anthem in support of the president. Now I’m rambling and sound like an idiot. But here’s some Rock, Paper, Saddam for your entertainment!