Jim, the British are not meek sheep because a majority in their modern democracy chose the "horrific" firearms regulations under which they wanted to live. Canadians were not meek because a majority voted for an over-zealous registry after a massacre in a Montreal college. Nor were they better people when they thought it through and reversed it. US governments representing the will of their citizens pulled out of Vietnam, Iraq and now Afghanistan when continuing was inimical to their national interests. They pulled out of Lebanon and Somalia when a barracks was blown up and a dead pilot dragged through the streets. All by and for the people. I don't think anyone would call America meek or weak.