Mr Urbane, there's a difference between being "anti-American" and being "anti-American-policies".

For myself, I think America could be one of the best things to happen to the world. "Give me your poor, your huddled masses", defiance of imperial power, meritocracy rather than aristocracy, etc.. Hell of a good principle to follow. And the culture of openness and friendliness in America is (I think) second to very few.

But note that I say *could* be. In fact it's morally right in the shitter at the moment, and has been for decades, by its leaders turning their backs on the principles the nation was founded upon. "No more poor, huddled masses, we've got enough", imperial power gone wild, a few ultra-rich families with vastly outsized political control, etc.. America was founded on the belief that the statement "my country right or wrong" was untrue, but neocons today will tell you that anyone criticising American actions is an enemy of the country, which is the very core of totalitarianism.

Yeah, NK is an evil, totalitarian setup. OTOH, NK hasn't been involved in a war of aggression since the 1950s - not because it doesn't want to, but more because it doesn't have the resources. Various US administrations, for what they saw as all the right reasons, have launched a bunch of wars of aggression since then (let's see - Cuba, Vietnam and Cambodia, Grenada, Panama, Afghanistan and Iraq, off the top of my head, of which only two - Cuba and Afghanistan - had any possible national defence implications) and propped up or set up a bunch of evil, totalitarian setups who routinely tortured and executed people but said they'd support the US rather than the USSR (off the top of my head, Chile, Uruguay, Argentina, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Iran - wasn't that a success?! - and Iraq spring to mind).

For that reason, I (and probably others) think that what American culture says and what its leaders do foreign-policy-wise are two very different things. "Occasional" shortcomings are one thing, but this doesn't look very "occasional", now does it?

Graham.