Speaking as a Canadian...we don't hate you, philgarringer. We don't hate ordinary Americans at all. We fear your irresponsible government leaders, your secret service agencies, your military leaders, and your giant corporations. We fear that they may commit irrational imperial acts which will in the end destroy our way of life and our freedoms...as well as yours. We fear that they will drag the world into another great war.

We are not evil men. Not in the least. We are ordinary men, just like you. Our hopes and dreams are much like yours. We are patriots, just as you are.

Your comparison to the British empire's unpopularity at its height is rather apt, as is the poem, but I think the British usually ran their empire a bit more wisely and sanely than yours is being run at present. They were self-serving despots, true, but they were still a good deal more rational and legally consistent than most despots are. They were a lot like the Romans...ruthless, but at least dependably consistent in their ways.

I would not have blamed people for hating the long arm of British Imperial power in those days, nor would I have called those people "evil men" for so doing.