Unfortunately I am being put in the position of defending my country in a thread where the main concern should be what was and is best for Elian. I will say this: the level of freedom and opportunity within the United States is probably the greatest in the world. As an experiment in self-rule by a country's own population, where the will of the people is exerted by their government, I find the United States second to none, and certainly far ahead of a Dictatorship like Cuba. Our actions in the world arena have been essentially motivated by these beliefs in freedom and self-rule. Since World War 2, the US has been put in a role we had never experienced: World Power, Bulwark against Communism, Policeman, and World Larder. We have made many mistakes, as the British did when in this position. But let me ask this....when Iraq seized Kuwait, should that action have been ignored, or did someone need to step up and stop it? And who would stop it if not the US, with the aid of its allies? And I believe this... if not for the Berlin Airlift in the early 50s, that city would have fallen to the Russian occupying forces, just as South Korea and Taiwan would have been subdued. Furthermore, I doubt that Europe would have endured in its present form without the presence of American Forces to counterract the Communist Block forces in the Fifties and Sixties. The fact is, you cannot be a World Power without committing transgressions, sometimes huge transgressions.

As for the action of the Vincennes, I believe it was a tragic mistake. If their commander was decorated for shooting down a passenger aircraft, then that was also wrong. Perhaps our "guilt" in this matter is somewhat mitigated by the loss of hundreds of soldiers and civilians, as well as Scots on the ground, when one of our civilian aircraft was destroyed by terrorists over Locherbie.