In fairness to the GP Americans from the US are nominally assholes with their "we're the best" attitude. Although these days I think you would find more and more "we suck" attitudes especially with the hollowing out of the institutions and our inability to do anything about health care or gun related deaths. Historically this sort of animus is directed towards the leading economy (which may be China one of these days). In the past the English, the Dutch, and the French have dealt with this sort of thing.

By and large though for PicassoCTs, the framing of my comment was to poke fun at the editorial decision to call it the longest man made river, I did not, and do not, under appreciate the positive aspects of the project and the industrial and political will Egypt had to muster to create it. You need look no further than high speed rail, which the Egyptians are well on their way to building a network to connect the northern part of the country to the south, and California, a state with an economy literally 10x the size of Egypt's has been unable to pull off.

So no, I harbor no misconceptions about the US being "exceptional", you can rest assured of that.