[JohnW]

Hi Alan,

When you said "Autralia is going the American way..........." I felt the inference was, that you were not pleased. It certainly sounded like a complaint to me, if I misinterpreted that statement then I apologise. Apart from that I have to agree that Americans are insular. The main reason for that is that a vast proportion of them are untravelled. They have never set foot outside of their own country except, in the case of northerners, to go to Canada and southerners, to go to Mexico. This faction of the American public is blissfully unaware of what goes on in the rest of the western world. They think that Europe is just the same as here when, in fact, in some ways it is very diffierent.

I always consider that you cannot judge a people fairly unless you have seen them on their own turf. Please take it from one who has lived in both Europe and America that, for the most part, they are the most generous, pleasant and good natured people, although sometimes a little naive. I also put that down to the fact that they are untravelled. Of course, there are exceptions, just like in everything else and some of them are loud and haughty, happily, these are a very small minority. As individuals, they really try to do the right thing. There are some people here very much against the war in Iraq and are very vocal in their concern. Others, consider we are doing the right thing for all parties. No-one can ever hope to get it all right can they? As a US President, or the Prime Minister of the UK or Australia you are going to be damned if you do and damned if you don't. Let's face it, some British, Australian and American people thought we should have left Hitler alone.

It's not all that many years ago that the two large superpowers of the time, America and Russia, were slogging it out to become top dog in the world. All I can say is, thank God it was the Americans who won that race. I think our lives would be a damn sight worse had it gone the other way. The US has, reluctantly I believe, taken over the mantle of world policeman from Great Britain. The Brits were not exactly popular when they had the job, and still aren't for that matter, it just goes with the territory of being the most powerful nation in the world.

As I said to Doug in a previous post, I think it's great that we can have these discussions without becoming aggressive and insulting towards one another. I also feel that we all have something to learn from the other point of view, even if we cannot agree entirely.