C'mon, Richard.

No "passing the buck" and no "xenophobia" on the part of the vast majority of Americans. Many Americans would be just as angry at Exxon, Shell (Dutch owned), Standard Oil, or Uncle Charlie and his brace-and-bit if they had caused this.

In the Exxon-Valdez oil spill in Prince William Sound, the spill was blamed on Exxon. Sure, it was a drunken captain who was the direct cause of the disaster, but it was still the responsibility of Exxon to see that their tankers had competent crews. The captain had a record of drinking and negligence, but Exxon still kept him on. He was a disaster looking for a place to happen. So Exxon was ultimately responsible.

And it was a BP executive who ordered the drilling crew to speed up the drilling, while the crew argued that it would be unsafe to do so, anticipating what might—and did—happen. The executive was adamant and insisted. Short of mutiny, there was little the drilling crew could do.

BP is ultimately responsible. The fact that BP stands of "British Petroleum" is beside the point. Nobody holds the British people responsible.

The idea that there is bigotry involved is just plain silly.

Don Firth