The heat of this thread is certainly unexpected. I guess lots of people who watch the news and fume about high-handed US behavior are taking out their frustrations here.
I think US defenders need to understand that US 'bashers' are quite familiar with the fact that we lead the world in many areas. But, we do NOT lead the world in ALL areas. You would never guess that from watching/listening to US media, though. Especially political news and advertising. The constant 'patriotic' bragging and preening got so nauseating during the Reagan years that you could hardly stand to turn on the TV. It's subsided a bit since then, yet it's still far too prevalent. The attitude problem that our government displays in international contexts, crashing around like the proverbial bull in the china shop, doesn't help either. So, large numbers of Europeans who've been seeing this stuff for years run across this thread in the Shrapnel GAMES forums and vent at it. Hmm, maybe they should write letters to the editors at CNN.com, ABC/CBS/NBC.com, FOXNEWS.com, etc. They might actually attract some attention and get a feature story about the perceived arrogance of the US abroad.