Hi Dan,

You know me...a little over the top is par for the course. The French bit was added for the euro crowd who often engage in anti-US universalisms such as: Americans are all cowboys, Americans are all fat, Americans are all dumb, etc. So the inferiority complex line was tit for tat and of course not a universal truth. ;-)

The Latvian thing was only in my mind because of a recent old WWII era magazine I was leafing through. A big picture of Nazis being treated as heroes and liberators accompanying a story about red executions that took place as the Germans approached, was fresh in my mind. Sadly, to folks living under Stalin - Hitler's Nazis were considered a vastly superior alternative. I guess about 80 people had been executed and buried in mass graves when the Reds fled. It also tells one how those small republics were living as prisoners of the Soviet Union and watched over by a small but powerful group of "controller" Reds. It made an interesting read because ostensibly the Soviets were our "allies" as we went after Hitler and the reporters were hard pressed to align or justify the incongruous roles.

Naturally, this does not mean the Latvians loved Hitler at all - but rather only reflects how awful life was under Stalin.

The scary thing is... if we are interpreted as 'warmongers' by the left - it tells one how cockeyed a view of the world they really have.

;-)

Take care Dan,

SDAI-Tech1