America, the U.S. of A. My view of it has always been an ambiguous one: Great achievements in science, technology, space exploration, popular music (the latter mostly based on the talent and innovative spirit of African-Americans as in Jazz and Blues which spawned Rock'n Roll asf) but also loads of bullshit like racism, bigotry, christian fundamentalism, merciless capitalism asf.

Nowadays, after "Dubya" Bush became President and after Sept. 11 the United States are pulling out of international agreements (like the Tokyo Accord on Climate control), try to hinder the initiation of the International Criminal Court in La Hague and wage a "war" on terrorism that can't be won. Duh.

Judging from all sources available to me, like CNN (I don't trust them anymore and see their reporting now as the "official" and probably biased version), BBC World (really neutral and uncensored), all sorts of online and offline magazines and of course the Net, there ARE still critical voices to be heard in the U.S. They are upholding truly democratic views and sane politics, but the majority of the population seems still in a state of shock that has the ends justify the means, all means, even horrible ones like killing civilians in Afghanistan or executing suspected terrorists without a trial. There's even some evidence of U.S.-tolerated massacres committed by Afghan forces allied with the West. Sounds familiar? Remember Vietnam? Americans should wake up!