[Surgeon]

Oh I do agree that the world needs to be policed. And the UN does make a hash of it - most of its movements are blocked by red tape and the way the whole thing is organised - the veto thing doesn't help - ie France / Russia vetoing invading Iraq, US vetoing the UN bringing the Isrealis to boot, etc etc... The problem I have is that the US Government uses the "policing" role to grab more assets for itself under the guise of doing whats best for the world - If you take up the role of the worlds policeman then you don't get to keep the goodies

As for the whole hostage taking thing - I think the Embassy Seige in London (SAS storming it) and Mossad storming the plane in Uganda put the wind up potential hijackers. The US had little to do with it

And yes thanks for the lend / lease program - We only finished paying it back at the start of this year - mainly cause of the extortionate interest rate mad: ;)