Very true. Look no further than the unity showed by the people of London during The Blitz in WWII. Or the massive home support of the British Troops during the Faulklands conflict. People pull together when in conflict, and close ranks when under attack. It becomes a very patriotic time, for any nation, and any critisism is taken to heart. Such a mass outpouring of patriotism is often perceived as brashness and arrogance, and generally, Americans have been wrongly critisised in that department.
Britain suffers from two separate, but linked complexes; inferiority, and identity. The Empire is gone, Britain is not 'Great' anymore. We lost The War of Independence, and relied heavily on America to support us in two European Wars. In place of it's Empire, Britain now finds itself under the watchful eye of the EU. Something it has never really come to terms with, or for that matter, fully embraced. They fear they'll start to lose their identity if they change their currency to Euro's (the Danes are the same in this respect), drink half litres instead of pints, and travel in kilometres instead of miles. It doesn't want to let go of it's once great past, and rely on other nations, even in partnership.
America, on the other hand, is a confident, thriving, multi-cultural society. That it sometimes pushes it's weight a little too much is to be understood, not critisised. Should we ignore the plight of people in countries led by dictatoship? Should we really think that it's out of our hands, and none of our business? Maybe we should be thanking the most powerful nation on Earth for having the balls to try to do something about it.
Jealousy is a very bad thing, and the Brits have it in spadefulls when it comes to America. They seem to have forgotten what they were like in the past, and indeed seem to have no inkling as to how they are perceived by the rest of Europe. It's time some people grew up and realised that actually, we have a lot to thank America for.
As a Brit I think this is a great piece of analysis. However, we do know how we are perceived by the rest of Europe, especially every May when the Eurovision Song Contest occurs.
However, the criticism that us Brits uses against America has often been interpreted as inclusive when it has been more specific.
For example we generally like America more when you have a Democrat as President largely due to their policies & ideologies being a lot more similar to ours in the UK.
However, a large percentage of our nation have a major problem when it comes to a Republican administration. We have a problem with their religious Christian right wing theological beliefs such as anti-abortion/birth control/sex education, anti-divorce, anti-Homosexuality, anti-Scientific viewpoint (such as stem cell research) on Creation and the origin of species. we have a problem with their laissez-faire screw the rest of the world with regards global warming and the impact that human activity clearly has on climate change by ignoring the Kyoto Protocols.
Whilst at the time of the (illegal) War in Iraq, 63% of Brits were against it. As a result of "Puppy" Blair following George "W" Bush into this dreadful war leading to the deaths of thousands of innocent people and a few thousands of the allies troops, it was to cost Tony Blair his Prime Ministership. Which is a great pity as his former Chancellor (Gordon Brown) has shown in his first few months as PM that he is not up to the job.
To many Brits we don't hate America, but we hate George W Bush and his administration especially Donald Rumsfeld, but hey like a bad/sick John Wayne Western film parody he was only finishing off his daddy's work.
Never mind if the Bush Administration really wanted to do something about the "War on Terror" then it should have been paying a far closer eye on the military dictatorship in Pakistan, but ignored the vastly increasing Al Qaeda involvement in Pakistan because they are an ally of the US of A. Plus if America are the good guys then what are you doing having a Guantanamo Bay which is something that belongs to Hitler's Nazi Germany of Stalin's Communist Russia?