<HTML><FONT FACE=arial,helvetica><FONT SIZE=2 FAMILY="SANSSERIF" FACE="Arial" LANG="0">Hi all,<BR>
I dont think that all this war talk is appropriate on a music list but as it has raised its ugly head let me put my five eggs in.<BR>
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My message to all the whining Yanks is `Grow Up` and stop being so childish.<BR>
This attitude that `if you dont do what I want I will take by ball home` is unworthy of a country that calls itself the leader of the free world.<BR>
What you mean is `free, provided you do as I say`<BR>
I know it was a shock to discover on 9/11 that there were actually people in the world who didn`t love you and it seems incomprehensible to you that any rightminded country could have a differing viewpoint. See Bush`s stupid `You are either with us or against us` speech but in the real world, not in the comic book black or white world there are intelligent people who actually have the temerity to hold other viewpoints than the one held by the US.<BR>
Dont kid youselves that all this hoo ha is being done by the US out of the goodness of their hearts. The US have an agenda as have France, Russia and everyone else.<BR>
The bribery that America has used to get the UN to back her, arms here, money there,sanctions lifted somewhere else has made a mockery of the worlds ONLY debating chamber.It may well not recover.<BR>
In the UK we dont like the French much.We have fought them for hundreds of years They have dropped us in the mire much more than they ever have the US.<BR>
Where were you when France capitulated without warning in 1940 and left our entire flank exposed to the Germans? But we dont go on, and on, and on about them. We dont jump up and down and stamp out feet like badly brought up kids and say `Shant, go on holiday in France. Shant buy French wine! So there!. <BR>
I bet you have the French shaking in their shoes.<BR>
Incidentally why are all these petulant ravings reserved for the French? The Germans are not galloping into war either but no one has suggested No German wine,no German holidays? No anti German jokes?<BR>
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Dont get me wrong.I am not one of those to whom Charlie Hooks referred when he said they say`We would like you better if you were not so American.` I love you because of the differences between the UK and the US. So many things are admirable about the US.I just love visiting. I love the open hearted hospitalty. I love the junk food. I love people saying `What a cute accent`<BR>
BUT! The feelings are rather like those for a favourite eighteen year old son. I admire and commend all sorts of good qualities and then I want to punch his head for acting like a twelve year old.<BR>
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No doubt some of you will want to have a go at me over my views and I will be delighted to have some correspondence with anyone. Nothing I like more than a good argument, but off list please. <BR>
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Cheers<BR>
<BR>
PatL</FONT></HTML>