Dear oh dear.... when will people learn? If you're talking about nations, there is no 'them and us' - no Americans versus British, no Afghans versus Americans, no Russians versus Chechnens. There are people. People with widely differing points of view. Talking about 'Americans' as being ashamed is about as meaningful as saying, oh I don't know, all Americans like boiled eggs. Some Americans are 100% behind Bush, some are 100% against him, many are somewhere in the middle. The only them and us is 'the people of the world' versus 'the governments of the world' (or whatever the ruling power is). We have to learn to stop stereotyping - wars are easy if you can stereotype, and justify your actions by saying 'all Iraqis are....', 'all Germans are....', 'all Japanese are....', 'all Russians are...' (By the way - I'm not American, I deeply disagree with Bush's actions and will happily protest against against them, but I'm not so arrogant as to be sure that my point of view is the right one - it's simply the right one for me. Which is why I am glad to hear the differing points of view coming from Americans on this website. People are thinking about it, questioning it, and coming to a conclusion. Good.)