).When I was stationed in Europe (Ramstein, Germany) I discovered that many of my compatriots still adhered to the old "if they don't understand you, then talk louder" paradigm. I didn't start looking for a McDonalds until I heard you could have a beer with your cheeseburger (the value of that anecdote alone was worth the indigestion ).
I believe that the main reason Americans are so cocky is this: we own the store.
Unlike other countries, where the rights of the people are parceled out to them as largesse from above, our government derives it's authority from the consent of the governed. Even our constitution starts out with "We the People...".
Although few of us are ever truly in full charge of the direction our country makes or the decisions of our elected officials, we still have the pride of ownership.
Despite serious faults and errors, in the past, at present, and very likely in the future, we take pride not only in what America does, but for the ideals it (often imperfectly) represents.
Mind you, I'm not apologizing for stupid Americans who say or do stupid things. I find they do that sort of thing at home, too. I'm certainly as smug as the rest of 'em. I just have better manners.
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CONSUMER NOTICE:
Because of the "Uncertainty Principle," It Is Impossible for the Consumer to Find Out at the Same Time Both Precisely Where This Product Is and How Fast It Is Moving.
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I did'nt do it.
It still gets annoying though.
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"Audaces fortuna juvat."
"Fortune favours the bold."
For example, the US blockades Cuba and attacks (economically) other nations that trade with Cuba, supposedly because of human rights violations, and then turns around and does billions of dollars worth of business with China (an irony that I've always got a laugh out of is the US complaining about property stolen from Americans by the Cuban government during the revolution, when in fact the US government is sitting on a lot of land stolen from the British 
)
Another example: the US went to war with Iraq to liberate Kuwait, which is not a democracy and has had its human rights record questioned in the past, but just so happens to have a lot of oil. This while other fledgling democratic governments around the world (especially in Africa) fall to coups, and other nations such as Tibet and East Timor are invaded without the Americans even blinking.
And lets not forget children making Nike shoes in third world nations, America refusing to pay its debt to the UN etc. etc. etc.
The conclusion I come to is that the American government makes policy based on their own self interest, and that of its citizens, just like the imperial powers of the past. One can't blame them for that, that's what they're there for, I just wish they'd quit lying about it.
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"Sometimes you get the bear, and sometimes the bear gets you."
-Commander Riker, USS Enterprise
Chimaera - That's my exact quibble with the USA . Well said.
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I drink therefore I am.
-Descartes
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"A fellow's invented see-through film
He calls it 'cellophane!'
Another has built a parachute
For jumping out of an airplane!
Remarkable things flow endlessly
From out the human brain!
Indeed
And what a remarkable age this is!"
--Titanic: the Musical
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Parallax
The current belief in the U.S. is that the interests of the U.S. are also the best interests of the entire world and vice versa.
i.e.: The Gulf War and the Somalia 'rescue' op.. Somalia was a world interst not an American one and the Gulf War was about our need for oil.
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Wheeelersburg Correctional Facility
Inmate #05301999
[This message was edited by bryce on March 29, 1999.]
That statement shows the hypocrisy of the whole thing.
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I drink therefore I am.
-Descartes
Serbia? Just look at how many pieces on the news are done about the new B-2s we get to test. More importantly, this should get Al Gore some votes in 2000 from the bleeding hearts(which will be a literal statement once this powderkeg known as the Balkans is set off).
Now, maybe we are all condemning the US too much! If what I am hearing out of the ancestral lands is correct, this may be the best thing in the history of the Slavic people. Not to mention to letting Germans see their glorious Luftwaffe bomb a city into submission. Come on, the US is looking out for everyone?
Ziyal: Yes, but, are any of those states the current power? When the Tibetians lead a bombing of Belgrade, we'll start complaining about them.
Of course, if what I am hearing out of the ancestral lands is correct, within the decade we should be able to redirect our energy towards another power.
Of course, for the counter point, acting in the interests of other nations doesn't always play with the rest of the world. For instance, we were only trying to eradicate Bolshevism. As the last 50 years proved, living under communism wasn't much better than national socialism.
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Day, after day
I get angry and I will say
That the day, is in my sight
When I will bow, and say good night
-------
Violent Femmes
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Wheeelersburg Correctional Facility
Inmate #05301999
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Parallax
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"A fellow's invented see-through film
He calls it 'cellophane!'
Another has built a parachute
For jumping out of an airplane!
Remarkable things flow endlessly
From out the human brain!
Indeed
And what a remarkable age this is!"
--Titanic: the Musical