Well, Student_on_a_rebound, "England hated us right on through the war of 1812'. That's true, but it ain't an excuse for US self flagellation. The English public at large (and a large part of the Scots, Welsh and Irish) were sometimes, collectively, very stupid. One of the obvious ones, to me as a history buff, is the way English public opinion seems to have been overwhelmingly in favour of the South during the US Civil War. That doesn't mean current US policy is wrong or right, but it does mean that looking at public opinion, either in the US or elsewhere, is not much of a guide. I'm with Anne Applebaum: a lot of what people think about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is not shaped by whether they feel the underlying policy is good, but by whether they feel it is being pursued competently.