No, you're not the evil empire, but you tend to overlook the beam in your own eye.

What jars is not the absolute level of evil represented by the US (though executing mentally subnormal people who can't afford decent legal advice for crimes committes while they were minors is not much to boast about): it's the yawning gap between the US's self-righteous rhetoric and its actions around the world.

Until recently, 11 September was noteworthy as the anniversary of the day when local goons recruited, armed and paid by the US, murdered the legally elected Allende and replaced him with the dictator Pinochet, subjecting Chile to almost two decades of murder and torture. That's only one of many examples of the US preaching democracy, but through its actions undermining it because of some nebulous perceived threat to its interests.

Nobody in Europe except for "President" Blair and a handful of his supporters imagines that the US invasion of Iraq has been for the good of the health of the Iraqi people. But at least Chirac, stomach-turning cynic that he is, doesn't imagine that he is part of God's plan to save the world.