Curiously, I had much the same experience despite being from the UK — Americans were always the heroes. British too (e.g. colonialism, empire, and commonwealth presented as an unmitigated good thing), but if there was a conflict of any sort between the UK and the USA, the USA were almost always the good guys.
America has been way more benevolent even under its darkest years than the British Empire ever was. Ask Indians and most African countries what it was like to live under the British Crown.
Not sure why that would be the case. A lot of Brits understand that while Britain survived WW2 it was the US that came out strong and helped to end WW2 compared to any other nation on earth (except Soviet Union) with not only technology dominance but also economic and in many ways cultural.
This also has a personal bias as I want the US to be remembered and not the UK who I think has done so much damage around the world pre WW2 in the name of colonialism including my home country.
The United States inherited a great deal of political history from Britain that gave us a huge boost. As Newton said, "If I see so far, it's because I stand on the shoulders of giants." We Americans got that advantage. And Britain didn't come by it easily: from the Norman invasion to the American rebellion were 11 civil wars. Representative governance instead of dictatorship was hard-fought. We like to think we alone fought for our system, but that's drastically untrue.
That's not even a controversial opinion though. US has pretty much always favored its anglosphere allies. It's more or less the new form of the british empire. See Five Eyes, Special Relationship.
As a Brit, I'm very grateful to the Americans. By antagonising a substantial proportion of the global population, you've really taken the heat off us.
The people of Afghanistan have a long and justifiable tradition of hating the British, mainly thanks to the three Anglo-Afghan wars of 1839, 1878 and 1919. Since the American-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, we seem almost quaint by comparison; our brutal imperialism is tinged with a vague hint of nostalgia for the days before cluster bombs and counter-insurgency tactics.
We invaded Iran during the first world war, backed a military coup of their government and ruthlessly looted the country for oil, but all of that seems like water under the bridge compared to the CIA's persistent efforts to destabilise Iranian society.
Pakistanis have every reason to hate the British - we imposed a bloody and brutal regime across the Indian subcontinent, then so badly botched the transition to self-governance that at least a million people died. Thanks to a decade of poorly-targeted and possibly illegal drone strikes by the US, nearly a century of totalitarian rule under the British is almost forgotten.
I can't remember the last time I saw a British flag being burned by an angry mob. Your government's decision to remain constantly at war probably hasn't done a great deal for your safety, but it's really distracted attention from our barbarism.
Check your timeline. The US wasn’t even in the war then. Though American help was instrumental later in the war, the UK actually saved itself from invasion (with help from fellow Commonwealth nations).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Britain
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