"French are punks and we should give two shits what they say. They havent been of any significance since Napoleon." that's where we disagree! i suppose what makes a nation significant for you doensn't for me. if you think the nation which fights the wars (ie kills people) is more significant than the one that gave us versailles and impressionism, than we can't argue. the level of cultural sophistication in every aspect of life that france has reached will never be reached here in the us, alas. and if that is not a criterion for a evaluation, then i suggest we turn to such as: who's better in rodeo, or who is better in making chain-food restaurants... "We tried to stay out of te conflict in WWII and that only cost countless lives that couldve been saved. The lesson we shouldve learned is we need to handle business before it gets out of control." i have no doubts the usa would have stayed out ww2 had it not had particular interests to protect its interests -- that is, to stop japan in its invasion and also to protect england. european countries have suffered much more than the us, who didn't bury millions of people in WWII. the usa marched in to war in 1943, once when it was quite obvious that germans were to lose. and also apart from liberating the western europe, the americans together with the british had no problems in delivering the entire eastern europe to the russians (to their traditional enemies!!!) who sucked it dry for the next 50 years. so you can't claim that the usa was this angelic force that always came to rescue the poor european nations when they needed help. we also all know that the us has fought wars outside of its territory and bombed many countries since WWII; i suppose you can name some good reasons for these as well...