Hi All. So glad to have had such an entertaining debate. Lets work our way thru all of that. Firstly. Mary. Why do right-wingers always leap to the polarised viewpoint. Your response makes my point for me! You do the ‘either for us or against us’ bit! Can’t you deal with the ‘grey’ in the middle? Just because I have cause to be disturbed some of the American hypocrisies on foreign policy doesn’t mean I blame (or hate) America for everything. I am equally doubtful of some British actions! Why any criticism is automatically deemed unpatriotic (if from your own compatriots) or anti-american, if from outside, escapes me. Is it being brought up (some would say, ‘indoctrinated’) with the idea that America is such an exceptional country? That the USA is so unlike any other country that it is beyond criticism and shouldn’t have to abide by the same rules that other countries follow. Satherring next, so your continued presence on our soil is for OUR benefit is it? To protect us from what exactly? The busted-flush of Russian resurgence? I think it benefits the USA greatly to have it’s bases here. Such a useful place from which to bomb the shit out of such powerful foes as Libya and Syria. Frankly, like a lot of my fellow Europeans, we wish you would vacate them. Do you realise America has bombed forty countries since the end of the Second World War? You should visit somewhere else on the planet for a more balanced view sometime. I was in Cambodia a short while ago. Did you know that their ‘holocaust’ was caused by your compatriots? That the Kmer Rouge were a minuscule and well-contained insurgency till Nixon began illegally (he even lied to your own population about it)bombing Cambodia, driving the population into the arms of the communist guerrillas. The rest is history. Just like he ‘saved’ the Vietnamese from communism by carpet bombing them too. My hope is that Obama is sincere when he says he wants a more co-operative approach to the world. We (the rest of humanity) could certainly do with that. John, again why does Sharia law (which I abhor as absolutism of even even worse kind) have anything to do with socialism? Sadly, your sources of information seem a tad askew. No-one is going to implement Sharia here. Because we, in this isle, are far too pragmatic to put up with it! Lastly, Michael. as a long-time student of religion, I could (given time) show you exactly where most of the myths in the bible came from, long before the Jews picked them up on their travels and incorporated them into their own history. As for beliefs, isn’t this where we came in? Obama’s beliefs in a fairer society don’t come from burning bushes, but if they did, I’m sure he could have garnered Palin’s support!
