[Skybird]

Originally Posted by dean_acheson

Again, if this is your opinion, and shared my a majority of Germans, than I find it tragic.

The United States IS NOT just a nation like everyone else.

Needless to say that the better part of mankind disagrees. What you consider to be patroiotism in that statement, or a description of america rweally having a unique role in history, others outside america simply perceive as pure egocentrism, and arrogance.

Please, pardon my confusion, but can you name me any other state in which, at its creation, a Constitution was drawn up, expressly stating that all power lies with its citizens, who agree that the government will have certain responsabilites and duties, and that plan for government was then sent to the citizens of a then non-existent United States, through a ratification process, at which point though majoritarian rule, was such a government established. A government based on the idea that power should be decentralized thorough checks and balances so as to forestall a King or Dictatorship?

You certai9nly know how massively the founding father's thinking was influenced by French forethinkers of thgeir time whose ideas were discussed and admired in the saloons in the cities along the Eastern coast!?

Also, your nation had totally different starting conditions han european nations had. Your history is much less complicated and muczh shorter, than that of europe. You had far less rivals. No wonder then that your way to reach a consitutioon and europe'S ways of gaining it'S own are different, and also led to different understanding of the duties of the state. One should be careful to say "this model is better than the others". One better says: "This model is the result of different starting variables in that place".

Does your country have anyone even comparable to a George Washington? Someone who could have grabbed the reins of power and did not, as well as clearly establishing the supremacy of the civilian government over the military? Did your country ever fight a very bloody civil war, which to a large extent revolved around letting those that were the most powerless be given the civil rights of the rest of society?

I recommend you start with reading the german Grundgesetz. german hostory is not the shortest, and it had many ups and downs. The downs usually are known and often described, or are evn used to shut up Germans in political debates, but the highs are not so often mentioned. Culture and cultural infoluence also has something to do with it. It would lead to far here to go into these things in detail, but you may want to remember that germany, as well as other major european nations, had a hugh scope of brilliant personalities, and that withoiut europe being formed by these, america would not be imaginable to exist in the way in which it finally was founded as an independant nation. It did not fall down from just the empty sky, I mean.

I love my country very very much. In fact, I think it is the greatest country in the world. Not only because it is the land of opportunity, and because it is a country that changes itself anew every day, but because it is a place where it is considered in good taste to create a "Marshall Plan" or to help rebuild a Japan. I love the traditions the United States is based on; life, liberty, and the persuit of happiness, and the fact that we are a country that does give a damn what other people have to say. In fact, policy makers here, as well as the public at large spend an inordinate amount of time worrying about what other countries and people think, for God's sake, does any other country, with the possible exception of Isreal, catch as much vitriol at the United States at the UN?

nothing wrong in loving the place where you live. but you must others grant the right to diasagree on your description of America being the greatest place on earth. because others, like you, may love the place they live in as much as you do. And like you have no obligation to follow thweir exmaple, they have no obligation to follow yours. You are just one amongst others, representing 5% of mankind, not more. the often mocked EU has a larger population that america, and manages to keep so many more former bitter enmies together peacefully than am erica ever had enemies in it's own sphere. I may criticise the EU as much as i want, but one achievement in major parts of Europe cannot be denied by enybody: that I today can go to Holland wiothout needing to fear to get lynched for the crimes of my ancestors, or that French and Spanish no longer shoot at each other when passing the borders, and British ships can anchor in continental harbours and are welcomed as friends, not enemies.

I agree with much, and disagree with much that happens in our country, and in the way that our country is presented to the world, and some of the actions that our goverment takes in the world (the war in Iraq is not one of them), but I would never agree that the United States is a country 'just like any other.' Such an exercise nhilistic realitivacy (sp) is not only depressing, it is wrong.

I think you too willingly oversee the many bitter realities that also exist in your country, and the many inner conflicts. The US is a nation like several others in the West: it has both light and shadow. europeans, by their own history, also have learned that it is very dangerous to think of one's own country being the only reasonable way to be a country. It has brought our ancestors a whole lot of trouble. and America brought the same kind of trouble to place like Vietnam, and Iraq, and I spare me more compliuctaed examples of indirect power projection by dominating international institutions which one helped to tailor to one's own needs. Good intentions only - are just not enough.

So, I have no problem with you loving your place where you live, and the people around you, and the way you people use to spend your life, if nit is not at the cost of others. It is what you know, and what you are used to. I just wish for more sense of realism, and the willingness to see the difference between what one wants things to be, and what they really are.