[JohnW]

Like Bullseyebarb, I am a Briish citizen but also an American citizen by choice not birth. I too consider this to be a great country and I am very happy living here. Of course it has problems and there is plenty wrong with it just like everywhere else, but the +'s well outweigh the -'s.
It should be remembered that Great Britain took on the role of world policeman for about a hundred years not all that far back. It generally falls to the most powerful nation to do that job. So, to all those who constanly say that America is doing a terrible job, let me ask you to consider the following. Up until the latter part of the last century, it was touch and go which was going to be the most powerful nation in the world. The period was known as the "cold war" and the two main contenders were Russia (representing the communist world) and the USA (representing the capitalist world.) How many of the USA haters out there consider it would have been better if Russia had come out on top? What kind of world do you think we would be living in now? When Russia marched into countries it was with the intention of taking them over (just like good old Great Britain did in its period of domination.) America has never marched into any country with the intention of collonisation. When they helped us out in the two world wars, they charged us for the goods we used which they supplied which someone mentioned has just been repaid. We will never be able to repay them for the lives of their young men which were cut short, and we're not talking a few odd thousand here, we're talking hundreds of thousands. America has been a great friend to Britain and generally speaking I think that has been reciprocated. It needs to stay that way, and Britain would be foolish indeed not to recognise that.
On the subject of Iraq. Quite frankly I would pull out all the troops and let the damned idiots kill each other and sort it out themselves. I really don't believe we can do any more there, our lads are just being used for target practice. We are stuck in the middle of a civil war. All countries which have ever been prominent in the past have all had their civil wars, maybe it's time for us to let the middle east have theirs. To those who constantly say that the west only went in because of oil - OK - let's think about that one for a minute. Let's agree that oil was certainly a part of the equation. If the western world does not get regular supplies of oil, what the hell do you think is going to happen? The oil isn't any more important to America than it is to Britain. Well without oil, the wheels of industry grind to a halt and our econmies go to hell in a handbasket. No money in the coffers to buy goods from abroad. So, as America is the biggest world market all the countries who supply them with their needs no longer make any sales. So, all their economies go to hell in the same handbasket. It would be a global disaster not just a disaster for the western world.
Let's just look at the countries which were defeated in World War 2. Germany and Japan. Did we collonise these countries and enslave their people? I don't think so. Both of these countries are doing very well indeed, much of their ability to become wealthy having been instigated by the countries which defeated them. This is the true measure of those countries. Our countries.
America is not a evil country. It is a good and generous country. Sometimes misguided? Yes. Do its politicians make blunders? Yes. Is the heart of its people in the right place? I believe so. It is a mistake to judge a country by its politicians, they come and go, a country endures because of its people.