Yeah, the "magic is over" until they want our food, clothes, music, movies, technology, lifesaving drugs, disaster relief, and oh yeah, any spare cash we might have available.
Also, some military muscle when it's a situation to
their advantage.
Seriously, it's difficult to believe that we move people that much one way or another outside the Middle East. Are there really people sitting outside a cafe in Lyon going, "Mon Dieu! Zose naughty Americans, zey are at eet again!", or some Asmat tribesman in New Guinea beating the drum for war against the evil Bush?
Here's a newsflash for ya, DUmbasses: People have
always had mixed feelings about the U.S. So many love our culture and standard of living and so many hate us for our strength, optimism and positive attitude, which they mistake for arrogance. It was that way 30 years ago when I was travelling around in the Navy and it doesn't seem to have changed much now, except maybe for the fact that many of the WWII generation of Europeans who loved us are dying off and being replaced with the socialist Eurotrash version of baby-boomers who are more prone to sneer.
And yet still they come.
As franksolich pointed out recently, governments can be counted on to do whatever is in their self interests, regardless of how the winds of popular opinion blow amongst their citizens regarding another country. Whether they "like" us or not has little to do with it.
