oggbashan
Dying Truth seeker
- Joined
- Jul 3, 2002
- Posts
- 56,017
Dr. M said:
US citizens will still be welcome in the UK. We even speak something like the same language (except in Yorkshire).
We don't blame individuals for the actions of their government. Remember than even those who voted for Tony Blair's party didn't necessarily agree with the war on Iraq.
We are perhaps more used to terrorist acts than US citizens are. We have memories, if only through earlier generations, of war randomly destroying our houses, our schools, our hospitals, our children - something that the mainland of the USA has no experience since your Civil War, and no concept of the destructiveness of modern weapons against a civilian population.
The IRA couldn't change our views with bombs. Hitler couldn't. By comparison Al-Queda is seen as less of a threat than the IRA ever was. We are wary. We are more security conscious because we know that the bomber can strike anywhere at any time and our police and security services have experience of the IRA.
Europe may be seen from across the Atlantic as a dangerous place. We see the US as more dangerous because of gun crime and drugs. There are very few places in the UK that are unsafe to walk through and most are safe even after dark. The few who attack strangers at random become headline news across the nation.
Muslims and other religious groups are largely tolerated and we don't blame all Muslims for Al-Queda. Why should we?
Don't be deterred from visiting the UK or Europe because of your preconceptions of what a US Citizen might expect as a welcome. You are more likely to be greeted as a friend than as an enemy - and that greeting would have been the same whether Bush or Kerry had won.
Og
US citizens will still be welcome in the UK. We even speak something like the same language (except in Yorkshire).
We don't blame individuals for the actions of their government. Remember than even those who voted for Tony Blair's party didn't necessarily agree with the war on Iraq.
We are perhaps more used to terrorist acts than US citizens are. We have memories, if only through earlier generations, of war randomly destroying our houses, our schools, our hospitals, our children - something that the mainland of the USA has no experience since your Civil War, and no concept of the destructiveness of modern weapons against a civilian population.
The IRA couldn't change our views with bombs. Hitler couldn't. By comparison Al-Queda is seen as less of a threat than the IRA ever was. We are wary. We are more security conscious because we know that the bomber can strike anywhere at any time and our police and security services have experience of the IRA.
Europe may be seen from across the Atlantic as a dangerous place. We see the US as more dangerous because of gun crime and drugs. There are very few places in the UK that are unsafe to walk through and most are safe even after dark. The few who attack strangers at random become headline news across the nation.
Muslims and other religious groups are largely tolerated and we don't blame all Muslims for Al-Queda. Why should we?
Don't be deterred from visiting the UK or Europe because of your preconceptions of what a US Citizen might expect as a welcome. You are more likely to be greeted as a friend than as an enemy - and that greeting would have been the same whether Bush or Kerry had won.
Og
Sigh - nada. Answers ok 
as the greater world sees it:
