Its kinda ironic that the Japanese caused their own downfall and the downfall of the Germans by attacking the US. The US was actually quite happy to sit on the sidelines of WW2 (at least the European part) (and yes I realise there was stuff going on in China before 1339).

Its pure speculation as to what would have happened if the US hadn't been dragged into the war in Europe. Hitler was never 100% sure about invading the UK - thats why he virtually ignored our island after the Battle of Britain (at least didn't attempt to invade it again). I'm more than glad that the US did eventually decide to join in on our side (even then the US harboured ill will towards the Russians)...and without them its doubtfull if the rest of the Allied Forces would have been able to invade mainland Europe.

I think the ill will is generated (a) by US companies playing to a US market - thats fine if you are a US citizen - but a lot of peoples grandparents fought / died in WW2 and it seems disrespectful / ignorant / arrogant not to at least have some allied forces in the game (b) If a Uk company did the same thing with only UK forces - its very likely that a lot of Americans would get pissed off.

Thankfully this is being rectified in Spearhead...

As for the US "policing" the world because they are the only Superpower -

Just want to remind you of a little thing called the British Empire - they controlled half the countries of this world - they invaded people for the "good" of the world - I believe the American Revolution put paid to that - Why are you so keen to go down the route of a country that your forefathers fought and died against ??

Nice one, Pest. Hey Joey, why don't you tell me where Britain would have been without the Lend/ Lease Act? Eh?

It's a shame that the voice of all those posts pointing out and commending the cooperation of the Allies are drowned out by the shouts of a few ignorant jingoist buffoons.

And to Surgeon, your opinion is well stated. But with all due respect, sir, I feel that someone has to police, and the U.N. has shown that it is staffed by the dove's, (or as I tend to think of them, the sheep.)
It would seem that even only a year after 9/11, the world, (not including Britain, ) expects us to buck up and get past the fact that so many people died. Is it because they were arrogant American's and they deserved it? I believe that if the dogs of the world, ( and I use that term in a good way), were allowed to do their job, we wouldn't have such worries.
The British Empire had it wrong, unfortunately. I feel that we at least want to try to get it right, otherwise there would be no diplomacy at all. ( also the stakes are a lot higher.) As well as the fact, as someone said before, American soldiers go home.
The U.N. as sheep will sit there, as people die, and try to rationalize with the wolves. I say let the guarddogs of the world, (i.e. the U.S. and Britain,) do their work.
And lastly, a quick question on history. Can anyone tell me why the hijackings and hostage takings that were so abundant in the 70's and 80's stopped? Could it be that we stopped talking and started killing the bastards? Hmm. That's not very diplomatic hake:
Yeah, it's not, but it worked.

Oh I do agree that the world needs to be policed. And the UN does make a hash of it - most of its movements are blocked by red tape and the way the whole thing is organised - the veto thing doesn't help - ie France / Russia vetoing invading Iraq, US vetoing the UN bringing the Isrealis to boot, etc etc... The problem I have is that the US Government uses the "policing" role to grab more assets for itself under the guise of doing whats best for the world - If you take up the role of the worlds policeman then you don't get to keep the goodies

As for the whole hostage taking thing - I think the Embassy Seige in London (SAS storming it) and Mossad storming the plane in Uganda put the wind up potential hijackers. The US had little to do with it

And yes thanks for the lend / lease program - We only finished paying it back at the start of this year - mainly cause of the extortionate interest rate mad: ;)

You got me there on the Lend/Lease. We did use it to get back all of Britain's assets in America, and then some. I can't make excuses for the politicians of my country. Even the good ones, (I can count them on one hand,) were right proper bastards.

As for killing them, I was referring to the SAS, the Germans (what are they called? the gerschwimminderfroggy, I can never remember biggrin: ), and even the Israeli's. Our SF's didn't have much to do with it above board. Desert One was nice in theory, but that was all.

So, I can't argue on the greed part. I have no defense for my government except to say, 'who isn't nowadays?'

No doubt if the positions were reversed our politicians might do the same thing - but when they put your country up on a pedistal your gonna get people taking potshots at you - especially if the pedistal is flawed

"I see all these foreign players with their various gripes about us Yanks. We're big bullies, or we're "overpaid, oversexed, and over here", "

Oversexed???? Damn, can't a brother get a little lovin' once in a while? Must not be maried.......[/b]