My American friends may react badly to this post, but this is how the Mirror, Britains most-read left-of-center Blair-supporting newspaper, depicts the US today. I would be greatful if you would read the whole thing and give your thoughts:
Americans are the planet's biggest flag wavers. They are reared on the conceit that theirs is the world's best and most enviable country, born only the day before yesterday but a model society with freedom, opportunity and prosperity not found, they think, in older cultures.
They rejoice that "We are No.1", and in many ways they are.
But events have revealed a creeping mildew of pain and privation, graft and injustice and much incompetence lurking beneath the glow of star-spangled superiority.
Many here feel the country is breaking down and losing its moral and political authority.
"US in funk" say the headlines. "I am ashamed to be an American," say the letters to the editor. We are seeing, say the commentators, a crumbling - and humbling - of America.
and, after a litany of America's current ills, it finishes:
America's sense of itself - its pride in its power and authority, its faith in its institutions and its belief in its leaders - has been profoundly damaged. And now the talking heads in Washington predict dramatic political change and the death of the Republicans' hope of becoming the permanent government.
IS AMERICA FINISHED?
Well no, I don't think it is. But I don't think that the rest of the world differentiates between the Bush administration and America as a whole and that should worry you all because it will have a ripple-effect in world affairs. Its a legacy that will be a long time fading.
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