A World Without America

BritainAndAmerica.com is very proud to have sponsored 18DoughtyStreet.com's two minute advertisement that imagines a world without the USA.  It is impossible to make detailed arguments inside two minutes but the advert points to the many political, economic and technological benefits of an outward-looking America.  This website is a passionate believer in the special transatlantic relationship and will continue to fill these pages with arguments against the anti-Americanism that is sweeping too much of Europe.

Comments

[Dan]

Think about this: if the timeline on that "World Without America" clip started ten years earlier, the entire ad would be in German.

[james]

There should be an Ad for Britain since we have done more for this world than America, we founded America,Australia,New zealand,Canada. We started the industrial revolution which thus created the modern world. We Are the country with the most inventions also the country taking out most patents. We invented the internet (WWW), the locomotive, light bulb, the first electric computer (the colosus) , the steam engine, radar, the television. Fact is there would be no America if there wasn't a Great Britain.

[Phillip H. Davis]

As a retired American military veteran, who gave the very best years of his life, to the protection of this nation and the world. I am glad I gave it all, giving up the civil freedoms that common folks enjoyed. Because the bottom line is, there will always be evil and tyranny in this world with or without a free loving country with a big stick!

So glad some brits and Europeans saw the light and entered the boats so long ago and made the trip. Thank God!

Regards,
Phillip H. Davis
USAF Retired
(Welsh and Irish descent)

[Carl Lepak]

I tell my children repeatedly to hold those from Great Britain in high regard, things like this are the reason why. I dream that America and Great Britain will always have such a bond.

[Cy Quick]

I never expected the virulent anti-USA culture that exists in UK today. In WW2 there was an anti-Yank feel that I dismissed when I learned about it later. I have always known a few people were jealous and knocked America. But in recent years the propaganda of the Marxist-fascist Labour back bench and and Green-fascists has been so successful that the general population parrot the ignorant hatred of the hand that fed us, the cousin that saved us, the driving force that keeps us out of dying in our own languid apathy. Good work! Cy Quick at mydigest.wordpress.com

[Stephan]

Pieces like this scare the shit out of me. I always hope that US-Americans arent that delusional. And always they try their best to shatter my hopes.

[GodBlessTheUSGodSaveTheUK]

I'm a proud Yank, and to me, the really curious thing is- relatively speaking, there is scant difference between Brits and Yanks. The contributions the UK has made to the world are staggering; I could point to the evils of colonialism, etc, but I won't-they are far outweighed by the positives given to the world by the UK's culture, science, and yes, military.

I just hope she survives the islamic invasion =(

[WilDaMan]

Face it. The special relationship is dead. Anti-Semitic Britain (beginning with Longshanks' forced exodus, surprisingly set aside by O. Cromwell = a good argument for NO royalty) up to the present, hates the Jews. We should never have helped the Brits in WWII (they would have made good little Nazis), nor defended against communist oppression in postwar Europe (they are all some form of Commie fools now anyhow). We should do what WE and WE ONLY think best with Iran - Europe has already surrendered. The British navy equals that of the Belgians...what a laff. To hell with all of you. Melanie Phillips has got it right...hope the rest of you enjoy life under Sharia, you pillocks.

[Kevin Sampson]

Sepulchre: Hiding away from the world is not at all what I am advocating. Quite the contrary. Your example of Kim Jong Il will make an excellent illustration. For half a century we have had troops in Japan and South Korea, guaranteeing their security. During that time they have both built vibrant, dynamic economies which are the envy of most of their neighbors. Especially the DPRK which poses a much more immanent threat to Japan and South Korea than to us. Yet we still seem to be ‘in charge’ of containing the Norks and trying to find a way to curtail their nuclear weapons program. Why aren’t Japan and South Korea fulfilling this role? Why do we still have troops there? If they are not willing or able to provide for their own defense by now, then perhaps they should be supplanted by more vigorous cultures. Many of our critics maintain that, if it weren’t for American bellicosity, the poor, misunderstood North Koreans wouldn’t feel the need to possess nuclear weapons. Very well, let’s put it to the test. Withdraw from the theater and see what happens.

I think that the political leaders of many of our allies have come to rely on our security guarantees far too much. This has prevented these nations from developing mature political and governmental organs capable of perceiving the world as it actually is, and making the always difficult, sometimes hair-raising, and usually painful decisions needed to survive in it. I think they would all benefit immensely from weathering their own life-and-death crises as we have.

Of course, I realize that what I have described thus far may seem like hiding away from the globalised world, so let me return to the subject of Kim Jong Il’s Korea. It is possible that, even if we made plain that we were going to make the Japanese and South Koreans deal with him, Kim might still choose to attack us, either directly or through non-governmental proxies. In this instance, we should immediately launch a general war against North Korea, including a concerted campaign to kill Kim and every member of his family we can find who is still in-country. I don’t think that’s hiding from tyranny.

[Kevin Sampson]

Stephan: Pieces like what? Please be more explicit.

[Bellaraphon]

Thank you very much for this ad. I am an American of mostly British ancestry and I still have some relatives over in England. I am proud of our countries' shared heritage, and I believe America has no greater friend than Britain and her Commonwealth.

[Rob]

HAHAHAHA! That was funny....oh you where serious... I don't see any points on that movie that make America seem any better. Even Polio would be better then a United States.

For a country who does NOT support her allies I have no good will.

[Scared and Scary]

Some of the comments above show that the posters still think the US is THE economic engine of the world. But...why is our great manufacturing base disappearing? Why do we need foreigners to buy $3,000,000 of US debt a day to prop up the dollar, the world's reserve currency? What happens if China decides to sell off the billions of dollars it's holding to protect themselves from a falling dollar? Where does our government expect to get the money to pay for its obligations to Medicare and Social Security? What will happen to the millions of Baby Boomers when they retire and sell off their stocks and bonds? Will they even have pensions?
Bottom line: America is a declining power. She no longer has the economic strength to back up her military power. The world will soon find out what a world without America will be like.

[Roxanne Kean]

On the West side of the pond a lot of us have been puzzled at the hatred being sprewed about our country. I mean, exactly, what have we done to deserve such treatment?

We entered WWI and WWII, fought and died to free Europe, spent trillions of our dollars to rebuild Europe and Japan, and spent over 60 years standing firm against creeping Communism so that Europe and Asia had the freedom to enjoy the fruits of their labors. We offer help in every disaster--even to our sworn enemies; we feed a lot of the world from our farms. We do these things because we can, and because it is the right thing to do.

And now, when the United States needs the support of world we helped the most, we are derided, abandoned, slandered, and blamed for everything from global warming to deliberately giving babies in Africa the AIDS virus.

Only a very few true friends have remained at our side--thanks to the Brits and the rest of our English-speaking brothers and sisters in Aussie-land and Kiwi-land. We appreciate your words of support and your company on the front lines of WWIII. We love you guys and we won't ever forget you stood by us in our darkest hour.

As for the rest:

Many Muslims hate us--but we(a mostly Christian nation) have splilled our blood and spent our national treasure on stopping the slaughter of Bosnian Muslims in Europe (no oil there folks), freeing Muslim Kuwait from Saddam, providing Muslim Kurds with security that has enabled them to thrive, and freeing Muslim Afghans from the nightmare rule of the Taliban. We hoped to free the people of Iraq from a madman. We wanted to give them the hope and joy of freedom that we enjoy and we were naive enough to believe having freedom, they would be grateful, as the Kurds are in Northern Iraq. If we've failed, it's because freedom can't be given to those who have never known it and can't appreciate it. We can't stop people from hating each other, so much so that they encourage their children to blow themselves up. Sorry, we can't work miracles.

If we were half as bad as we are painted, the Middle East would be a glass parking lot a long time ago. We could have leveled Baghdad in an hour; and every major city in the country if we wanted to. You haven't seen us really mad--yet. Some of us have hit the snooze button after 9-11 and turned over to go back to sleep--but not all of us. Be warned-if we go, we will be taking you with us. We will trust a just God to sort it all out in the end.

The United States isn't perfect; no country or people living on this planet is. We have our failures--and when we fail, people suffer. Two million Cambodians suffered and died because we failed in Vietnam. Six million Jews died, because we failed to enter WWII in time to save them--but many others did live, because we did enter, and we did win.

I hope for a moment the world WILL consider--What if the USA wasn't around? What if?

[Angelo Basu]

As a Brit I find it hard to comprehend how any sane countryman could prefer any of the alternatives however much they might oppose the Iraq War or think that there has to be something suspect about a country that can elect Dubya twice. At worst, they are wrong decisions taken by a country that is fundamentally on the side of values we share. Better that than to side with the occasional decisions we agree with taken by nations and leaders with whom we otherwise fundamentally disagree and who, if given the right opportunity would be happy for us to lose absolutely everything that we hold dear.

[Jim, Dearborn]

Gotta love the Brits. We could not have a better friend in the world. Do you hear that, Canada?

We got your back and you got ours

Three cheers from Michigan.

[Lee]

Thank you for supporting Israel. Britain's record with the Jews hasn't been the best, but, then again, there are good people in the UK who recognize the value and need to support the Jewish democratic homeland. No Israel would mean Spain and France next, then the UK under Sharia Law. Israel today is to the free world what England was to the US at the start of World War II. We've posted you video at our website: www.dafka.org

[Anglophiliac Yank]

Thanks for remembering our contributions to what even the US-haters know is a better world.

We still have your back, at least until your 2020 Parliament seeks to extend Sharia throughout the Commonwealth.

[Jacob Tolar]

I would have to say that, as an American, there are no other "foreigners" on earth I admire more than the British. You Brits have defended that little island for what? almost 1000 years? Yall are some tough SOBs. This is probably the reason us Americans are so damn fiesty and powerful, is because the founders of our countrys (while at the time despised the British government/monarchy) were born from the same blood. They were the same strong and steadfast men as the men who have defended England for so long.

I am proud that our countries share more than just a common language. We are brothers in arms, and it looks like we have a lot more enemies to take care of in the future.

[Phillip Cassini]

Thanks for making this video. Perhaps it will convince some people that the net gain to the world of having the USA around is far greater than some of the small evils the US has committed in the past. The entire world owes a lot to the USA. It is the colossus that upholds the global civilization we live in, and without it that civilization dies.

[GodBlessTheUSGodSaveTheUK]

Oh ya, we still need to dialogue about that whole "1812" thing...lol...

[Stephen_M]

Cute vid. And welcome, too.
Thanks, from an American cousin.
Another cousin said something along the same lines once. With Aussie vigor.
Here.
http://antisubjugator.blogspot.com/2005/06/thanks-america.html

[mamapajamas]

@GodBlessTheUSGodSaveTheUK: re: "Oh ya, we still need to dialogue about that whole "1812" thing...lol..."

Hummm... The Great Procrastinaters War... the war with the date 1812, in which virtally ALL of the major battles were fought in 1814 :D.

Personally, I suspect that our ancestors almost forgot what they were squabbling about, the snapped their fingers and said... "Oh yeah... this war thing... we'd better get it going, don't you think?"

"In 1814 we took a little trip
Along with Colonel Jackson down the mighty Mississip.
We took a little bacon and we took a little beans,
And we caught the bloody British in the town of New Orleans!"

LOL! :D

[Dave]

What a piece of absolute tripe?! It's going to take more than some lousy ad campaign to recover my views on the Bush administration. You forgot to mention that a world without America would be a world without Guantanimo......

[M]

These comments are a perfect example of some of the vast ignorance that pervades the US. A declining economic power? I guess $13 trillion in annual GDP is somehow less than China's sparse $2.2 trillion. Does anybody remember the Japanese scare of the 80s? What happened the great Japanese Economic Powerhouse that was supposed to overtake America by 2005? It never did and nor will China - do YOU have an answer for the billion+ Chinese citizens that will soon require many of the modern Western benefits? I thought so...

This ad was never meant to sway the majority of British citizens from their anti-american feelings - it is to provoke thought. A world without America would be a grim one indeed. Screw the extrapolation in regards to the Middle East, Russia, and East Asia - what of Europe? Prior to America, Europe was stuck in a never-ending war frenzy (Crimean War, Franco-Prussian War, Napoleonic Wars, Seven Years War - just to name a few). Every peace treaty failed miserably and will have continued to do so until they wiped each other off the face of the planet. When did inter-European war stop? Think about it.

I agree - the current administration has taken liberties with its power that has ostracized itself from the clear majority of Americans. But is it the American citizenry or government that Europeans hate? When I visit the UK, I am not shot, treated poorly, ignored, etc... - it is my government they dislike and not the American people.

Finally, to some of the commentors above: if you are so disgusted with America, then why do you continue to pay taxes that fund the government's actions? Why are you not rioting in the streets about the gross violations on human rights and common decency? Where are your voices? "I dont have the time" or "One voice does not matter" is as good as "Well its just terrorists at Guantanamo." The governments actions ARE detestable, but they do NOT represent Americans in general.

America has its flaws as does every country. It is important to look at the bigger picture and that is what this ad is doing. Do not discount America for its immediate obvious problems but rather carefully balance the positive things the AMERICAN PEOPLE have brought to this world and you will see that the good outweighs the negative.