Ah, well. I guess that it's difficult to carry on a discussion that is not face to face over a topic such as this. Too bad.
Glenn, I very much appreciate your view and opinion expressed in this thread. It is very close to me, as a historian and Social Studies teacher here in Canada. I would have liked to continue this, but I think that it will just cause more problems.
I very much appreciate the United States, and everything that it was founded on and stands for. It is a shame that it gets vilified for as much as it does in the world, but at the same time, as the most powerful nation on the planet, you are bound to attract the attention of critics. It's much easier to hide from the rest of the world when they don't realize that you exist!