Just a couple of little notes to Guest Uncle Sam and to Guest 282AR.

Guest 282AR first:

"The British are the biggest cultural thieves in the world. The British Museum is teaming with artifacts stolen from other countries. The British looted the Imperial Palace in Forbidden City in Beijing (Peking). That swag is still on display at the museum. Why did they loot it? Because the Chinese dared to rebel against this monstrous nation forcing opium down their throats."

Called war reparations, was universally carried on by all victors in varying degrees throughout history. The time that it was demonstrably taken to excess was by the Allies at the end of the First World War, the burden of reparations that they placed on Germany meant that the Second World War was more or less inevitable. Standard practice of the day 282AR - nothing was stolen - take a bit of consolation in that those artifacts are safe and well cared for.

"Not far from this Chinese exhibit is the Greek one containing unique, ancient works from this once-great civilization. The Greek govt wants it back because they never gave to the British. They simply took it."

These are the Elgin Marbles you are referring to Guest 282AR. Once again you are wrong, the "Marbles" are the property of Lord Elgin (who counts Robert the Bruce amongst his ancestors), they are on permanent loan to the museum (IIRC). Lord Elgin actually has a signed receipt for them. He bought them from the Turkish Governor of Athens (Greece did not exist at the time). The reason Elgin bought the marble fresco sections was because at the time the Parthenon was being used as a powder magazine (it later blew up) and the marble frescos were being stripped off the building and burnt down to provide whitewash for buildings - he bought them to save them. So chances are that if they were not now residing in the museum, they wouldn't exist at all. Any of the above 282AR any official guide at the Acropolis in Athens will tell you. So nothing was "simply taken".

To Guest Uncle Sam:

I would draw your attention to a speech made by Churchill early summer in 1940 around the time of Dunkirk in which he said, " Hitler knows he must defeat us on this island or lose the war". Not withstanding the enormous contribution made by both the United States of America and the USSR to the allied war effort - Hitler knew that he had failed to defeat Britain by the end of September 1940 which predates your lend-lease act by quite a number of months. As for the 50 old obsolete "four stack" destroyers - hate to point this out to you Uncle Sam but we paid for those and paid for those at the time they were handed over.