Hard & Soft America

[DanaC]

I have long thought that really, everyone worldwide is just trying to make it day to day, keep the kids out of trouble, food on the table, roof over their heads – the human condition is universal. Even so, I thought we had something different in this country that was founded by rugged individuals and adventure seekers. If we were looking for the easy way out, none of us would be here. We were the grand experiment, a nation of devil may care cowboys – play hard, work hard, shoot straight, and fight fair.

Beautifully put. Often what seems like anti american sentiment from us euros is actually more of an intense disappointment that with the start you had you havent managed to avoid making the same mistakes we made when we were powerful. But then they do say that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. America has absolute power in the modern world.

As to the abuses in Abu Ghraib.....The soldiers and reservists who are being courtmarialled over those offenses should be held accountable for their actions, but they did not think this up. They are responsible for their parts in it but they are not responsible for the whole. The people who are ultimately responsible for this outrage are the people who stated that the soldiers and interrogators should "Grab who (they) like and do what (they) want". These same people instigated a policy of abuse in Guantanamo bay and Afghanistan and then extended that policy to include Abu Ghraib. Rumsfeld and Rice both approved that order.