Yes, Wolfgang, America will be ashamed for a very long time.

At present, my biggest fear is the Avian flu which has surfaced in Iraq. As we know, many diseases are brought 'home' by soldiers. In the case of the Avian flu, all it needs to become a pandemic is for the virus to be transmitted from human to human. This has not yet happened but Iraq is fertile ground for such a thing to occur.

With so much stife, it will be very difficult to contain the virus. In addition, clean water is a commodity (you can thank Hallibuton for that), and it will be almost impossible to treat because of the lack of hospitals and other medical facilities. It is not too hard to imagine that combined with the affects of war, the U.S. will be partly responsible for the spread of the Avian flu.