Really, we're not that smart

After several recent and not so recent conversations with certain Frenchies (i.e. the H and his family) I have realized that quite a few people really believe that our American government is super smart and are experts at not only world domination, but at covering-up major conspiracy theories.

As my American friends point out, though, people give our government way too much credit.

French people, in my opinion, are just bitter about the fact that they are not really the number one superpower and are always convinced that our American government is evil, evil, evil. I think we are just stupid, stupid, stupid.

Being a major WWII history buff, I must point out Pearl Harbor. I know lots of people say that the US government totally knew about Pearl Harbor in advance and let it happen, but I really don't think we knew that much about it. I think that the U.S. government intercepted SOME Japanese documents - but that not all of them were code-broken in time to prevent Pearl Harbor. Plus, if you think about it, Pearl Harbor was not considered to be a target because the waters there are quite shallow, so people figured that even if bombs were dropped, nothing would really happen - they would just kind of plop into the mud underwater and not really do much damage. Also, the government probably just figured that the Japanese would attack the US military bases on those teeny islands in the South Pacific - which I guess would make a lot more sense. Anyway, I mention all this because the H recently accused the U.S. of entering WWII with a fierce plan for world domination - whereas I really think we entered because we were provoked. I honestly don't think there was a whole backplan to install the Marshall Plan before we even entered the war - first of all, the U.S. was still into its isolation policy where we didn't want to be involved in international affairs - not to mention the U.S. did not ratify the Treaty of Versailles after WWI, nor did we join the League of Nations. The U.S. was also still coming out of the Great Depression, and I highly doubt Major World Domination was on the To-Do list. I mean, frankly, we could have just stayed neutral, which was what the US government was totally planning to do - not only were we on the verge of signing a neutrality pact with Hitler back in the early 1940's, but the U.S. also installed the Lend-Lease Act in 1941 where we provided money to the UK and the USSR so that we wouldn't have to get involved by sending troops.

I guess that what I am trying to say is that it really bothers me when French people talk shiz about the US, especially in matters of WWII. Yes, we do lots of stupid things now, but this does not mean one can overlook the fact that the U.S. took some of the biggest losses (in terms of military deaths) during the war (around 22,000 deaths and 106,000 wounded on D-Day alone) - and that we did not HAVE to get involved - we could have let Europe stay Nazi forever - it's not like Hitler was ever going to be able to attack the East Coast of the U.S. (despite numerous plans to do so, they were all deemed too expensive and unfeasible). Let's not forget that thanks to U.S. involvement (not only sending our troops in, but also thanks to the Marshall Plan), Europe is where it is today.

As for certain theories by my Frenchies re: 9/11 (the U.S. knew about it in advance; the CIA planted bombs in the basement of the WTC and exploded them; it wasn't al-Qaeda who was responsible; and United 93 was a fake flight), all I have to say are the following: 1) I'm pretty sure the CIA messed up - they failed to recognize the imminent threat - and I'm pretty sure Bush didn't tell them to go ahead and let the WTC be destroyed - does Bush really seem like that kind of super smart guy who keeps up to date on current affairs???; 2) I'm pretty sure al-Qaeda is responsible, considering the fact that they CLAIMED RESPONSIBILITY; and 3) it seems like an awful lot of trouble to go to to make up a fake flight with a fake passenger manifest and fake conversations (not to mention that one of the people on this flight was the brother of a girl I once knew); and 4) I happened to be in NYC at the time of 9/11 so I do not need French people who were in France telling me what it was like.

Sometimes things really ARE that simple.

Okay. Rant over.