Why do the British criticize the US so much? Has everyone forgotten about the colonial British Empire?

Question

There have been some great answers. A lot can be learned by asking these types of questions.

I agree, Americans have decimated the English language.

Answer 1

Interesting question. The premise seems to be that if you have a past that is not spotless you have no right to criticise your neighbour for what he is doing now.

Now we can listen to the quiet coming from every single country in the world as they are struck mute.

lol

Criticism is part of democracy. When you force people to shut up (threaten them with retaliation, or to cut off their aid, or just with an embargo) you strike a blow for dictatorship. If you do something that make people angry (do I mention Iraq and the abysmal handling of Afghanistan?) you are bound to get your share of angry criticism.

On the other hand the British have troops in Iraq and stuck up through the US lies about WMD and ham handed handling of the war and reconstruction, I would say they have the right to say their piece.

Heck, even the French have troops in Afghanistan since the beginning and under US command till last year and all they got in return was a six years smear campaign depicting them as yellow cheese eating surrender monkeys because they refused to follow in Iraq like most other countries and dared criticise that war.

Answer 2

The British criticize the Amricans in the same way a parent tries to teach their children The British have a general affection for Americans and both share the same values. ( Let's leave the British "loony left" out of this as being unrepresentative of the majority opinion ) The British however tend to be much less impulsive ( most of the time) and certainly made enough mistakes of their own to have learned a few lessons. On the other hand they have quite a few successes as well.

Britain criticizes not out of spite or jealousy but out of respect and a wish not to see Aerica waste or abuse their tremendous power and potential. Very little British critcism seems to be second guessing or saying that something is wrong. In recent years they seem to be pointing out that America does tend to go on with the same old plans when a rethink and different options are called for.

Answer 3

In Response to Birdyatyork:

Yes, the Americans got involved in the first World Wars late, that can be explained by policy at those times and the physical state of the military. In WW2, it was the Isolationist policy that kept us out. However, FDR knew that Hitler wouldn't stop at Great Britain and France. He did what he could to help until the American Citizens would allow total war. Does "Lend-Lease" ring a bell? He took measures to more or less force a Japanese attack, which he needed to convince the people that war was necessary. He got what he wanted with the attack at Pearl Harbor. That was in 1941, well before the "half-way point" of the war. Don't get me wrong, I understand your frustration, I totally agree that my fellow American Citizens who think other countries are indebted to them. In some instances, yes; but in the World Wars, no, I don't believe any kind of debt is owed in an allied effort to stop a madman, such as Hitler. It's easy to see that supporting and allying with Great Britain was a much better option than trying to co-exist with Hitler, if he had accomplished what he wanted. I'm not going it was done "to save your ***." More like FDR contributed to keeping a good country free from a psychopath.

The Cold War was a stalemate, yes. Not much action happened, you're correct again. My question is: would you rather risk nuclear war? My answer is no. I hope yours would be, too.

Vietnam is a bit of a "head-scratcher." Preventing communism from spreading is an honest policy. But in Vietnam....? I don't think it was important.

I agree that a good deal of American independence is owed considerably to France. As is England for settling North America. In the War of 1812, the US lucked out becuase, at the time, England was busy trying to get rid of Napoleon and deal with the US at the same time. Even while being tied up by Napoleon, the British were able to beat around the American Military. However, by the time Napoleon was defeated and those armies were brought to America to fight, the Americans had, by then, learned how to fight. They were successful; they key was the Navy being winning the Great Lakes area.

Please don't take this personally. I felt I had to share my views rather than go unspoken.

Answer 4

I hate to say it but everyone criticizes the US a lot. Anytime anyone or anything is in a position of power they are an easy target for criticism regardless of what they do.

Most people don't care that the US was a British colony at one time. Any judgement being passed is based on current world events, and not historic colonolism.

Answer 5

I don't think it's the British in general. It is the left-wingers, just as the left wing in the US criticizes the US and makes them out to be the bad guys no matter what the situation.

At the start of the 20th century, when there were a lot of social problems everywhere in the world, socialism was born. In its early days it was embraced by many who saw it as a panacea for poverty, crime, etc . Many people in Britain and the US supported the Russian Revolution, believing that it meant a paradise for the ordinary working people

Despite the atrocities committed by the Stalinists, committed socialists excused these actions on the grounds that they were a means to justify a desirable end.

Their political descendants are the left-wingers of western societies who are convinced that wealth is evil (even though many of them are themselves millionaires many times over)
that power is automatically bad and that whenever a rich, powerful country such as the US does something for another nation or group that it does so simply out of greed or with evil intentions.

Consequently, no matter what the US does, someone will criticize its actions.

For example, in the US, charitable giving by private citizens totals more money than the entire rest of the world combined!
And yet the US government is constantly accused of being stingy with foreign aid, because the amount of GOVERNMENT money devoted to the poor countries is a smaller percentage of GNP than of the major European nations. Yet in Europe, private donation to charity is at a far lower percentage of income than in the US - people don't donate because they rely on their government to do so.

After the Boxing Day tsunami of 2005, private donations from the US totalled more than $3,000,000,000 - three billion dollars!

Personally, I think it is jealousy, pure and simple, "sour grapes" on the part of those who do not enjoy the wealth and influence that the US does. America is a wealthy country not only because she has been blessed with many resources and lots of arable land, but also because Americans work - they work their backsides off.

And the US seems to be held to a higher standard than everyone else. In all wars, for example, there are things done that vary from official military regulation. Yet when Americans do these things it is as if nobody else in the world has ever done anything wrong.

A good example is the Abu Ghraib prison nonsense. The so-called atrocities included taking pictures of naked prisoners, putting dog collars and leashes on them and otherwise making them look ridiculous. It was wrong, I don't deny, yet the compatriots of those prisoners were beheading people, killing aid workers, torturing captured prisoners. And yet the left-wing made more fuss about Abu Ghraib than about the beheadings!

History shows that whichever country is the world's superpower it will be criticized, often by its own people who feel there is something noble in such behaviour.

Yet isn't it interesting that millions of people are clamoring to get into the US, overstaying their visas to remain living there, sneaking across borders to work there - if it is such a terrible country why does everyone want to live there?

Everyday because of my work (I am a European immigrant who lives and works in the USA) I meet dozens of people from all over the world who come to the US as tourists, students, workers - the same thing is not true of Iran, Sudan, Afghanistan, Venezuela - and while lots of Americans tour Europe on vacation, very few decide to live there permanently,

As I said, it's sour grapes, jealousy, envy.

Answer 6

Firstly because the British actually contributed to their Empire and created something more than Disneyland and MacDonald's. Secondly because the British established a "Pax Britannica", thirdly for all their wrongs the British stood alone for 3 years against Nazi Germany while Americal sat and watched. Fourthly because that was in the past and America is screwing up the world now and finally because whereas Britain has produced science, invention, literature and spread the English
language across the globe the Americans are largely responsible for ecological disasters, making the world feel unsafe and the only real marks they have left abroad are Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Need I go on?

Answer 7

You have bastardised the language, ( because you are so sodding lazy to write it correctly) you have screwed up your own lives as well as the majority of the world, you have money but no culture or humour. You are infuriating to the extreme with that ridiculous habit of naming a place and then putting the country eg Paris France, London England. Everyone in the civilised world knows that Paris is in France except you dozy articles. If there is another Paris somewhere near Shitkickerville Arkansas, then feel free to say so. From the standard of the questions on this site leads me to assume that 75% of your population is totally illiterate, your standard of spelling is appaling even given the excuse of Americanisation. I could go on for ages but my fellow countrymen know what I am talking about .

Answer 8

Hello,

I thought they are your allies right now and fighting at your side in Afghanistan and Iraq. Certainly there are many on the streets who cry and protest on American policy but then again more than half your own population is saying the same on Bush's polices both ecomomic and military.

The empire is long gone and most living in England today had nothing to do with it anyway. In life it is not so much who or what you were that counts; its who or what you are now.

Cheers,

Michael

Answer 9

The colonial empire was of a different time and mind set. The criticism now is political. Not everyone in this world agrees with our policies. Heck, not everyone in the US agrees with our policies! Criticism is good. It makes us think, change, grow.

Answer 10

We are criticising actions taken by the US now. What our governments and societies do is what is important. History is useful because we need to learn from our mistakes and successes but you cannot criticise the people living now for what their ancestors did.

Most of what Britons criticise the US for, is the same things they dislike about our own government. It is just you do not hear it or register it. One of the biggest beefs is the handling of the Iraq war and the issues surrounding it. We do not like our freedoms eroded in an ill thought out reaction to terrorist threat.