For an outsider it's very weird watching you Americans debate. A bit like wattching two guys at a party hitting each other over the head with balloons. (What kind of parties does HE go to - I hear you saying).

You use the terms liberal and conservative as terms of abuse. I England, both the Liberals and Conservatives are respectable political parties - so nobody has to ask what a conservative is. They've got a manifesto, and everybody knows what they stand for.

What's wrong with wanting to conserve what is good about your country? And similarly whats wrong with wanting the maximum amount of civil freedom in a liberal society for everybody - both are noble aims.

The trouble is that the abuse is getting in the way of the debate which grips everybody in the world. Is Bush right in what he's doing?

We've had two wars and now there are rumours of a third - all with regimes we may not approve of, but not definitely connected to the perpetrators of 9/11. A couple of nights ago I saw (on an American TV channel) someone laying into Kerry because he burned down Vietnamese villages 30 odd years ago. The debate you should be having is getting further away from you.

For what its worth, both the Liberal and Conservative parties in England (who are not in power) are against-ish the war. What used to be the socialist party (Labour) is in power and backs Bush to the hilt.

Perhaps the trouble is that as long as we bicker about personalities, they don't have to take what we think seriously and they don't have to burden us with facts about what the hell is going on. I think that is probably true the world over.

Ihope