quote:
“Moving 3000 miles east from North America to the EU, a community of 27 countries, a population totaling 492 million and with 23 languages, they do not appear to have the same fear about movement of people that the Americans do, nor (does it seem)do they want to poke their noses into so many hot-spots around the world.”
What makes you think Americans are afraid to move around? Americans love to travel within and outside of the borders of The United States and do it often. Geographically America is large and there are more diverse landscapes here than in Europe. I see no need for an international passport.
As for Europe not seeming to want to poke their noses into so many hot spots across the world, they learned their lesson after two massive wars within the last 100 years or so
. England and other countries of Europe used to
love sticking their noises into other countries business and trying to force them into their way of thinking; even by war if necessary.
Less than 86 years ago one quarter of the earth’s population were under the rule of The British Empire. Go back further than that and The British Empire was even larger. Portions of North America, Africa, The Caribbean, Australia and even the Middle East were ruled by the empire.
The British poked their noses into other countries business for hundreds, and hundreds of years. It took them a long time, but they finally learned that it was not the best thing to do.
After World War II The United Kingdom was economically exhausted. The “new kid on the block” (United States of America) and her allies would no longer sit by and accept British colonization. Being a smart people the British decided that their time would be better spent rebuilding its merchant fleet and using its resources to repair the damaged infrastructure to their homeland than to try to recapture or maintain their massive colonial holdings throughout the globe.
Now with the United Kingdom no longer willing or able to poke their noses in other countries business as much somebody had to take over the role so the new power of America decided to give it a go.
A pretty huge leap for a country that a mere 5-6 years before was not involved in the war in Europe (other than helping supply her friends
) and had one of the smallest standing militaries of any industrialized nation at the time.
The United States will learn unfortunately much like the British Empire did; the hard way. When America is no longer the “big kid on the block” some other country will step in and fill those shoes you can be assured of that. The Soviet Union tried, but could not compete with the economic might of America. They are reorganizing now after the collapse of the Soviet Union and Russia is worth watching. But it will be many years before they could be taken seriously in that role.
Keep your eye on the economic juggernaut of China. They are expanding rapidly within their borders and sooner of later will look outside. Be cautious because
The Chinese are coming 
!
quote:
“It's unlikely, methinks, that any American thinks like that. So there's no 'paranoia' here, in that we don't live anxiously, but there is a marked awareness. So life goes on.”
Not true Fred. I don’t know what information you are getting over there but over on this side of the pond we aren’t running around all paranoid and nervous all the time. Life goes on. We are no stranger to terrorist attacks either. Maybe
we don’t have the resume of you guys , but we are no stranger to them.
We are learning a great deal from England and are taking those lessons to heart. As of a couple of months ago (when it was officially announced) the whole of Lower Manhattan is now under 24/7 video surveillance. Many portions of Midtown are too and we are working our way up to being able to monitor the whole city. Many train, bus, airports and subway stations are under surveillance too, but they won’t divulge exactly where is until of course it
all is being watched
. Even many of the trains and busses themselves have surveillance equipment in them.
The “
if you see something say something ” campaign has been working out rather well here too. Not paranoia but in today’s world if a package is left unattended it won’t be there for long I can assure you of that. People are helping people in droves.
My bride has to commute to her company's headquarters about 2-3 times a week nowadays. It is right in the heart of Times Square and she commutes via the Long Island Railroad (Largest commuter railroad in the world) into Manhattan and then hops on the subway to get across town. While there she has to travel all around Manhattan for meetings. Millions and millions of people go about their daily business quite diligently. “Marked awareness” here too, life goes on.
One of the advantages that England has is you folks don’t have that pesky Constitution to worry about when you guys set up surveillance shops. We have to work our way around that one here
.
