Eldon: a typical American?

[Nick]

So I've just finished watching the news, where Eldon (I think his last name was Anderson but who cares? It would be just as fitting if it were Atkinson), decided to speak out in defence of his friend, one of the pilots accused of killing Matty Hull in a friendly fire incident.

Way to go Eldon, nice home run you hit there with the remarks that "you english should stop sucking your thumbs like you did in World War 2 and get on board"...

Having been to the US on three trips now, I was actually of the mind that your average US citizen was actually a fairly well clued fella... certainly most of the folk I spoke to had a bit more of an idea than our Eldon here.

Of course, this evening Eldon offered up a faltering, grovelling apology that GW Bush would've been proud of...

So Eldon, should you Google your own name and this thread ever pop up, here's a quick history lesson for you.

The US, whilst undoubtedly turning the tide of both World Wars, was UNBELIEVABLY late both times.

Stop believing everything Hollywood tells you, or for that matter the rather misguided ramblings of our own PM who believes the US stood with us shoulder to shoulder through the Blitz (that was pretty much over the year before you guys got stuck in).

Also, and just so we're clear. Out of "you guys in Europe" as you so eloquently put it with those broad brush stroke phrases, the UK is pretty much your only committed ally supplying troops to Iraq in any significant numbers.

But in the spirit of making off the cuff remarks due to a stupifying ignorance, I'd just like to finish off with one final thought, just for you, Edon: Perhaps if you pulled your baseball capped, dumb hick head out of the exhaust pipe of your gas guzzling V12 truck, you might just learn something from watching the current affairs... or try reading the newspaper before tearing up for toilet strips when you're out huntin' with your banjo-playin redneck friends.

If you can't do that, then at least have the intelligence to not go shooting your mouth off to TV crews.

As the saying goes, better to say nothing and have people think you're a moron than say something and just confirm it.

Eldon, congratulations, you confirmed it on a world stage.

[charleski]

Video of the piece of garbage in question.

[edit]And as far as who was sucking whose thumb in WWII: yeah, right

[Clunk]

I saw him last night on the news and he really is a bell end. I was waiting for him to say "Heck, you limeys would all be speaking German if it wasn't for us".

[JPreston]

Absolutely vile, ignorant, scum

Not because he doesn't know that it was Russia who won world war II, but because the context of the interview is a negligent killing that would normally be subject of a court-martial ("We're in jail, duuuude" ) but in this case is subject to a political whitewash.

america would find it even harder to recruit to it's army if there was the possibility that any one of them would ever be held responsible for his actions in iraq.

The UK should withdraw immediately, as majorities of brits and iraqis agree. Thought this was democracy we were spreadin'?

[nichomach]

I don't want to generalise about Americans on the basis of this one person's opinion. That said, that is one of the most offensive pieces of television I think I've ever seen. That man is good and sufficient justification for the revival of putting people in stocks on the village green and throwing rotten foodstuffs at them.

[coco]

just confirms my view that we should leave Iraq straight away,
with allies like these who needs enemies

[MadduckUK]

hadn't heard anything about this until this thread. why do i keep thinking about taking a golf club to his face? and why does every swing feel better than the last?

he's pretty much ****ed his country of any self respect it had left. i cant be ****ed with these people anymore

gave them the benefit of the doubt for a longtime, they just sound different, there pretty much the same. like **** they are. slimey elitist knobjockeys

[MadduckUK]

that pretty much didn't get across the HATE i have for this guy

[iranu]

I wouldn't spend too much time on this. How many people did ITV news interview with regard to this incident? Did they pick this one to air because it was from an ignoramus and bound to be controvertial? So what if he "knew" the pilot.

I think this is just what ITV intended a row about a stereotypical American.

Unfortunately my experience of Americans within the USA seems to be one of an insular, poorly educated, ingnorant nation who have little interest in afairs outside of the USA. Some get it but they seem to be a tiny minority. /shrug.

[excalibur2]

If Americans experienced:- Somme, Pachaendale, Verdun, Stalingrad, Leningrad, Kursk, Berlin, blitz on UK and Germany (and other cities)....they wouldn't be so gung ho.

TOTAL war should never happen again.

[Nick]

I wouldn't spend too much time on this. How many people did ITV news interview with regard to this incident? Did they pick this one to air because it was from an ignoramus and bound to be controvertial? So what if he "knew" the pilot.

I think this is just what ITV intended a row about a stereotypical American.

Unfortunately my experience of Americans within the USA seems to be one of an insular, poorly educated, ingnorant nation who have little interest in afairs outside of the USA. Some get it but they seem to be a tiny minority. /shrug.

True, they could have gone around hunting for someone until they found the controversial view they were looking for... but the thing is, this guy claims to be the best mate of the pilot involved in the killing, so he's hardly some random bloke...

He chose to speak out in defence of his friend and just managed to make himself look a complete ass.

Also true is that we cannot in any way assume that Eldon's view are representative of Americans in general but, rather worryingly, America does have a growing reputation for its citizens being far less informed than they should be... There's plenty of evidence for this... Such a Gee Dubya telling a counsel of Arab leaders that he went to war in Iraq because God told him to do it...

Sure, be God-fearing and as religious as you want... but don't let it be a deciding factor in whether to wage a war or not.

But back to Eldon... The big problem is that if you look at any TV or films based on history, with a few exceptions they're all wrong.

Braveheart - chock full of factual errors... but it makes good viewing to knock the English
Pearl Harbour - Yes, some American pilots did fly in the RAF but not as Ben Affleck would have us believe...
Band Of Brothers - Though historically accurate, any sequences with British troops make them out to either be incompetent or always in need of help... And no mention of the crucial and heroic taking of Pegasus Bridge byt the British which was the second most important objective of the whole operation.

I could go on...

The point is, with a diet of media portraying war as heroic, noble and pretty much fought and won exclusively by Americans, is it little wonder Eldon thinks the way he does?

[charleski]

this guy claims to be the best mate of the pilot involved in the killing

Pilot: young Airforce major, probably in his late 20s
This guy: white-haired old vet with a chip on his shoulder.
How many people have a 'best mate' who's 2-3 times their age? He probably met the guy once in a bar.

[excalibur2]

True, they could

Braveheart - chock full of factual errors... but it makes good viewing to knock the English
Pearl Harbour - Yes, some American pilots did fly in the RAF but not as Ben Affleck would have us believe...
Band Of Brothers - Though historically accurate, any sequences with British troops make them out to either be incompetent or always in need of help... And no mention of the crucial and heroic taking of Pegasus Bridge byt the British which was the second most important objective of the whole operation.

The Brits had ground control at D-Day and for about the next 30 days, also in control of naval operations. A few RN seamen died at Omaha ferrying the US soldiers in.

BTW There were 7 volunteer US pilots in the Battle of Britain. The new US eagle squadron was only operational after it was all over.

At Pearl Harbour they had British radar installed, so the US must have made a cockup somewhere.

Another thing I've noticed in Hollywood war films the American soldiers seem to be butch and taller than the Brits when together.

Do the Brits get a mention with the naval help given to the US in the Pacific at Okinawa, US ships were easy meat with wooden decks against Japanese suicide pilots.

[Saracen]

I don't want to generalise about Americans on the basis of this one person's opinion. That said, that is one of the most offensive pieces of television I think I've ever seen. That man is good and sufficient justification for the revival of putting people in stocks on the village green and throwing rotten foodstuffs at them.

I absolutely and utterly agree with that, both in that that particular individual is a total and highly obnoxious tosspot, and that we shouldn't generalise about Americans (or the fiasco in Iraq) on the basis of it.

Unfortunately my experience of Americans within the USA seems to be one of an insular, poorly educated, ingnorant nation who have little interest in afairs outside of the USA. Some get it but they seem to be a tiny minority. /shrug.

To a point I agree with that, too .... but only to a point. I've spent a lot of time (for some years, between six weeks and three months of the year) in the US over the years, and by and large, I found that many people were far more insular than the typical European. I put this down to the belief that typically, international travel is far less common for the archetypal American than it is for Europeans. Perhaps this is because the reason a lot of Europeans travel is for leisure, and Americans can get the sun, sand, beautiful scenery, sandy beaches, ski slopes, etc that we have to travel for without leaving the USA.

I also very much put this insular condition down to the quality of most US TV news stations which, by and large, are dreadful. 'Foreign' news is what happens in the next county and 'international' is the next state. Well, not quite, maybe, but it often feels like that.

But I wouldn't go as far as to say they're poorly educated or ignorant.

But make no mistake - whatever lack of education or ignorance there is in the US, they sure don't have a monopoly on it. For instance, my landlord in my Uni days was a history teacher, and I went into his study to see him one day, only to have to dodge a notebook he'd flung across the room in disgust. I asked what was wrong, and he told me to read "that drivel".

I got about as far as the bit where an A-Level history student was explaining, in an essay, about the dominance of tanks in the battle of Trafalgar. For those of you a bit slow on the uptake (), Trafalgar was a naval battle. Tanks weren't exactly prominent it it, even if they'd been around in 1805. And this was from a student 18 months away from university entrance.

And if you need another example of ignorance, do the words Jade Goody resonate?

So before any of us generalise about all Americans from the dickhead in that TV clip, let's think about what the rest of the world might conclude about us Brit's from Miss Goody's shining example.

[madad2005]

With regards to WWII, the Americans should think of the amount of money themselves and Canada made out of the allies for the 4 years they stayed out of the war, before Japan forced the US to join.

And, yes, that guy Eldon is an ignorant prick and should be strapped to the undercarriage of an A-10 and dive-bombed into a large pile of ****. What else can you do with people like him?

[Nick]

Pilot: young Airforce major, probably in his late 20s
This guy: white-haired old vet with a chip on his shoulder.
How many people have a 'best mate' who's 2-3 times their age? He probably met the guy once in a bar.

Nah, the pilot has more than 20 years experience in the USAf, Col Kohntopp's his name... So it's very likely that he and ELdon are buddies.