What the world thinks of America...

[Cybernetic Organism68]

1st up, South Korea...



http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/programmes/wtwta/taking_part/html/south_korea.stm



SOUTH KOREA



Young Lee

KBS's Young Lee presented the results of an exclusive poll about South Koreans' view of America as part of a BBC-led global television debate about the US's place in the world.



Here he argues that the relationship between his country and the US needs to be re-affirmed.





For the past 50 years, the Republic of Korea and the United States have been enjoying amicable relations.



The so-called "blood pledge alliance" between the two nations was created based on Cold War ideology.



On the one hand, the US and South Korea share the common economic value of capitalism, and they also share emotional bonds having fought together during the Korean War.



On the other hand, the unbalanced relations between the minor and the major power eventually led to debates over the inequality of the Status of Forces Agreement (Sofa).



Anti-US sentiments

Still, the US and South Korea have been maintaining their firm military alliance for the same goal: to deter the threat of communism and to defend the South in case of a pre-emptive attack by the North.



With the end of the Cold War balance of power, the US emerged as the only super-power in the world.



The Cold War ideology, though it still exists among some Koreans, is drastically declining, especially among the younger generation.



Besides, South Korea has grown into an economic power, joining the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and successfully graduating from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) system.



Thus, the relative inferiority of South Korea has decreased and changes in the balance of power between the two nations have been growing slowly for the last 10 years.



On 13 June 2002, a US armoured vehicle crushed two junior-high schoolgirls, Shim Mi-seon and Shin Hyo-sun, to death as they walked past a military convoy.



The pictures of the two girls' dead bodies on Internet websites aroused huge public sentiment among not only the older generation but also among students of the same age.



As a result, peaceful candlelight vigils took place across the country and the progress of the trial was broadcast to the public.



North Korea

However, the two US soldiers who drove the armoured vehicle were acquitted of the charge and were allowed to return home without being punished for the death of the two innocent girls.



Through this case, many Koreans became aware of the unfairness of Sofa and called for it to be revised.



In addition, the case also acted as a catalyst in raising thorny issues, such as the size and the ways of deployment of the US forces in South Korea, as well as the policy toward North Korea.



A rising tide of anti-US sentiment and an elevated interest in US-related affairs were also demonstrated in the Iraq war this year.



South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun - elected by those supporting progressive policies - backed the US and dispatched Korean troops to Iraq.



His position was denounced by Koreans and the candlelight vigils initiated by the deaths of the two schoolgirls were continued in the anti-war protests.



Some doubts about sending the troops to Iraq existed not only among college students, labour unionists and female activists but also among politicians and lawmakers themselves.



Two major events - the death of the schoolgirls and the anti-war protests - triggered the radical change in sentiments towards the US and ongoing debates relating to these matters in Korea.



In this light, the present moment is a critical juncture for both the US and South Korea at which point both sides need to re-establish and mature their existing ties.

Cybernetic Organism (Organismo Cibernetico)

[Cybernetic Organism68]

Next up: Indonesia



http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/programmes/wtwta/taking_part/html/indonesia.stm



INDONESIA



Fifi Aleyda Yahya

Metro TV's Fifi Aleyda Yahya presented the results of a poll about Indonesians' view of America as part of a unique BBC-led global television debate about the US's place in the world.



Here she explains why America's reaction to the 11 September terror attacks provoked anti-US sentiments among Indonesians.





Indonesia - the world's fourth most populous country with more than 210 million people - is pivotal to peace and stability in south-east Asia.



As the nation with the largest Muslim population, its position has become even more crucial in the present global constellation.



The United States, as the world's largest economy with a huge influence on the global financial markets, plays an important role in supporting our efforts to solve the economic crisis.



These factors are strong reasons for Indonesia and the US to work for closer relations. However, this is not reflected in the changing reality.



The reactions in the US after the 11 September attacks made us realise how most Americans have little idea about Indonesia.



We are a secular nation, but we were very much portrayed as Islamic radicals.



'US arrogance'



This triggered a negative feeling towards the US.



During the US attack on Iraq there were never-ending conversations on the arrogance of President George W Bush and his government, even while we were drinking Starbucks' frappuccinos or having a quick lunch at McDonald's.



Despite admiration for American products, popular culture and lifestyles, Indonesians think the US is an arrogant power whose actions are unfair to Indonesia.



The basic reason for this is a lack of knowledge and understanding on each side about the other.



Bali is now more widely known than the whole country; an incident in a small Indonesian town can mean the whole country is portrayed as being unsafe.



Indonesia and the US maintain friendly relations, even though they disagree on various global issues. As the US ambassador to Indonesia Ralph L Boyce said: "as friends, we can disagree on a lot of things".

Cybernetic Organism (Organismo Cibernetico)

[Cybernetic Organism68]

Next up: Australia



http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/programmes/wtwta/taking_part/html/australia.stm



AUSTRALIA



Tony Jones

ABC's Tony Jones presented the results of an exclusive poll about Australians' view of America as part of a BBC-led global television debate about the US's place in the world.



Here he argues the world is in danger of being absorbed by the US.





As 1941 drew to a close, Singapore was about to fall and with it the long-held Australian illusion that the umbrella of the British Empire would shelter its colonies for eternity.



That brolly was blown away by a Japanese monsoon.



In his grim New Year's speech, the Australian Prime Minister John Curtin made a plea to America for help and so shifted us from one sphere of influence to another.



By 1942 General Douglas MacArthur had set up his South West Pacific headquarters in Queensland. Australian historians still argue whether this was the start of a long-term commitment to defending our mainland or just a temporary real estate deal.



Whatever interpretation is put on it, it is inarguable that US military power turned back Tokyo's military expansion and, from Canberra's perspective, saved Australia from invasion.



The ensuing bond, some would say obligation, led Australia to become the only other nation to commit troops to all of America's major land wars: in Korea, in Vietnam and during both conflicts in the Persian Gulf.



Frontier societies

A formal alliance was signed in 1951 and behind it was a deep cultural connection.



Both were frontier societies and English beachheads, which expanded across their respective continents during the 19th Century.



Both communities also adapted to later waves of diverse ethnic migration, and both populations think of themselves as ingenious, informal and direct.



And both nations are longstanding federal democracies.



Even a few darker political legacies are shared, including the displacement of native peoples.



It is not surprising then that Australians have taken up Americanisms faster than Europeans, from V-8s to Frigidaires, and from sit-coms to slang.



Many young Australians have adopted US street fashion and its argot where their parents are likely to have been Day Dream Believers and their grandparents, card-carrying Musketeers.



Australian artists, actors and writers once sought the bright lights of London, but if they venture beyond Sydney and Melbourne today, they are more likely to be found in Los Angeles or New York.



On the other hand, the trans-Pacific relationship is tested by the sheer size and power of America.



Part of the Australian character is to distrust authority and much centre-left opinion has been suspicious of US governments since Vietnam.



In recent months Australian cartoonists have played to a popular cynicism that Australia is becoming America's deputy sheriff or worse, its lap dog.



America's cultural juggernaut



Many, while strongly supporting free enterprise, also distrust America's more ideological forms of capitalism.



To suggest Australia's public health system might be slipping towards a US model is politically potent.



On the other hand, conservative Australians share a view that not only Australian security but prosperity, too, is guaranteed by support for American values, military, diplomatic and business initiatives.



This camp is scornful of anti-Americanism, though the divide is not simple. Australians mix and match from an assortment of feelings about America depending on the time and subject.



Australians are both captives of and enthusiastic participants in America's cultural juggernaut. From Errol Flynn to Russell Crowe, mad, testosterone-charged antipodeans have leapt on the cart.



And for years, funny, feisty, tough-minded Oz women have been hauled on-board too.



Back home we watch them hoisting Oscars with a peculiar mixture of pride and loss.



You get the feeling that the new lord of the world, for whom the juggernaut was built, will simply absorb us all in his munificence... if we let him.

Cybernetic Organism (Organismo Cibernetico)

[Cybernetic Organism68]

Next up: Jordan



http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/programmes/wtwta/taking_part/html/jordan.stm



JORDAN



Lamees Al Hadidi

Al Jazeera's Lamees Al Hadidi presented the results of a poll about Jordanians' attitudes to the US as part of a BBC-led global television debate about America's place in the world.



Here she examines Jordan's position in the Arab world and its relationship with the US.





Trapped between the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and the Iraqi-Gulf conflict, Jordanian relations with the US have been subject to extreme changes.



Throughout much of its history, Jordan has been a pro-Western, modernising country that has adopted moderate policies on most regional issues.



Its small size and lack of major economic resources have made it dependent on aid from Western and neighbouring Arab countries, which presents a dilemma: whether to adopt American policies or look out for Arab interests.



Jordan's geographic position - wedged between Israel, Syria, Iraq and Saudi Arabia has made it vulnerable to the strategic designs of its more powerful neighbours - but has also given Jordan an important role as a buffer between these potential adversaries.



This, and other reasons, led the US to depend on Jordan and on its late King Hussain, then his son King Abdulla, to help sustain its policies in the Middle East.



Rift over Iraq



The 1990s, however, saw a brief rift in American-Jordanian relations.



Jordan had close economic ties with Iraq, which allowed it to import cheap oil.



Initially, King Hussain expressed an unwillingness to join the allied coalition against Iraq after its invasion of Kuwait, which disrupted relations between the US and the Gulf States.



However, that did not last long.



The same King Hussain changed course by getting more involved in the Arab-Israeli peace process in late 1991 by tightening the enforcement of UN economic sanctions against Iraq, allowing an Iraqi opposition group to establish an office in Jordan and permitting US fighter aircrafts in Jordan to help enforce the no-fly zone in southern Iraq.



Jordan, nevertheless, managed to maintain long-standing economic ties with Baghdad and the popular sympathy many Jordanians have with the Iraqi people; at least 400,000 Iraqis live in Jordan.



Jordan's role in the peace process was another milestone in its relations with the US.



In October 1994, Jordan and Israel signed a fully-fledged peace treaty at a ceremony on the Jordanian-Israeli border attended by former US President Bill Clinton.



US aid



The history of American aid to Jordan goes back to 1951. Total aid given until 1997 is estimated at $3.9bn including $2.1bn in economic assistance and $1.8bn in military aid.



Levels of American aid have fluctuated, increasing in response to threats faced by Jordan and decreasing during periods of political tension.



In 1991, due to Jordan's sympathy for Iraq during the Gulf crisis, the US Congress suspended aid to Jordan. But the president exercised a waiver later that year to maintain informal funds.



After signing a peace treaty with Israel, stipulation on aid to Jordan was removed.



As part of a 5-year Middle East peace and stability fund announced by the Clinton administration in 1997, both Egypt and Israel agreed to the diversion of $50m from each of their respective aid programmes in 1997 and 1998 to augment economic aid funds available to Jordan.



That brought US economic aid to Jordan to $112m in 1997 and $150m in 1998, and total aid for Jordan for those years to $152m and $228m respectively (including military aid).



Since then US aid stabilised at $150m in economic assistance, $75m in foreign military financing and $1.6m in international military education and training.



In 2003, however, the Bush administration sought to double the US aid to Jordan in view of its support for the "War on Terror".



In October 2000, Jordan and the US signed a free trade agreement, the third for the US and its first with an Arab state, which eliminates duties and commercial barriers to bilateral trade in goods and services originating in the two countries.



Jordanian 'anger'



Great political and economic ties between Jordan and the US, however, do not reflect the mood in the Jordanian street.



Because of American support for Israel - perhaps half the Jordanian population originates from Palestine - and the anger at what happened in Iraq, the Jordanians find themselves filled with deep anger at American policies.



That anger was reflected in several violent acts against US diplomats and local police.



Though the Jordanian Government has described them as "isolated incidents", these were signs of resentment of US policies in the region, and this anger cannot be mended by free trade agreements or direct economic assistance.



Whether that will change with more American involvement in implementing the road map, and exhorting more pressure on Israel, remains to be seen.

Cybernetic Organism (Organismo Cibernetico)

[Cybernetic Organism68]

Next up: Israel



http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/programmes/wtwta/taking_part/html/israel.stm



ISRAEL



Jacob Eilon

Channel 10's Jacob Eilon presented the results of an exclusive poll about Israelis' view of America as part of a unique BBC-led global television debate about the US's place in the world.



Here he outlines how important the US is to Israel.





The relationship between the United States and Israel, known here as "the friendship", goes back to shortly after the birth of the Jewish nation.



It is a mixture of strategic, economic, military, and cultural closeness that has dominated Israeli society since the 1950s.



During the Cold War, when most Arab nations sided with the Soviet Union, it was only natural for Israelis to look at the Middle East in terms of "us and America versus them and the USSR".



For Israeli governments and the general public, the US has been not only an ally, but rather its only real friend and supporter.



In more than 50 years, you could rarely find an Israeli politician who would seriously criticise the US, or would dare to confront it.



Of course there were tensions, but polite ones.



Some proud Israelis used to say that America has benefited from Israeli intelligence and expertise during the Cold War, more than Israel has benefited from America.



But the consensus is that without the US, Israel would have found it much more difficult to exist.



In the past decade, Israel and the United States have been involved in tenacious peace negotiations with the Palestinians. Sometimes it has caused frictions.



Cultural closeness



As America further pressurises both sides to compromise, Israel's political right becomes more and more aggressive towards the sitting US president.



But it is always very hard for right-wing politicians to create widespread anti-American sentiment.



As a whole, Israelis feel close to American culture, consumer products, music, movies and values.



Many Israelis have relatives living overseas, and young Israeli men and women find it almost obligatory to spend some time in New York or in one of the US universities.

Cybernetic Organism (Organismo Cibernetico)

[Cybernetic Organism68]

Next up: France



http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/programmes/wtwta/taking_part/html/france.stm



FRANCE



Alain de Chalvron

France 2's Alain de Chalvron presented the results of an exclusive poll about the French view of America, as part of a unique BBC-led global television debate about the US's place in the world.



Here he explains how the French admire America, despite the recent, very public, falling-out over the Iraq conflict.





Between the French and the US there is a typical love-hate relationship.



But make no mistake, there is not only hate. Love is as important.



France is the only major European country that has never been at war with the US.



When some American newspapers had, during the Iraq crisis, large headlines: "Don't forget D-Day", the French were thinking: "Don't forget Lafayette."



The consciousness that the American soldiers brought us liberty in 1944 is in every French mind.



One of the most popular songs in the 1970's was "Les Ricains" thanking the GI's for D-Day.



Even when the war started in Iraq, 53% of the French declared they hoped for a coalition victory, despite the fact 78% of them were against the war.



The link with the US has always been very strong in France; the outpouring of sadness after the 11 September attacks was huge, and a spontaneous pro-American demonstration of solidarity was immediately held at the Place de la Concorde.



Nobody had more applause than the New York fire-fighters who came as special guests of the 14 July parade on the Champs Elysées.



France is a friend and supporter of the US which has been vital for America.



Remember the Cuba crisis? De Gaulle, considered as the number one anti- American politician, gave Kennedy immediate and unconditional support refusing to look at the documents that the White House sent him saying: "The words of President Kennedy are sufficient."



So did Chirac in Afghanistan after 11 September.



'Aggressive US reaction'

But sometimes you also hate those on which you rely, especially if they seem to consider you, not as a partner, but as a vassal.



On the Iraq issue, we never believed that it was vital for the security of the US.



Therefore, we did not believe we were obliged to support President George W Bush's policy. More than 80% of the French supported the policy of their president.



The very aggressive reaction of the US administration and the media seemed largely exaggerated.



No major French newspapers treated Bush as Chirac was treated in the US and Great Britain.



The worst insult levelled at Bush by the French press was "cowboy", no pejorative words were used against the American people themselves, nor was there a call for a boycott of American products.



The fact is that we have seen this war as the unilateral act of a super-power that wants oil, the control of a strategic country and to give unconditional help to Israel.



The result is that today, the first word linked to the US in France is: "power", rather than "liberty" and "democracy" as before, despite D-Day.



And then there is the traditional anti-Americanism on social or cultural matters. The suspicion that America wants to impose its way of life, language, culture, food, economy and its ultra-liberalism.



This is the reaction of David versus Goliath, of "old Europe" versus "new America", and it is nothing very serious, and nothing that prevents love.

Cybernetic Organism (Organismo Cibernetico)

[Cybernetic Organism68]

Next up: Russia



http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/programmes/wtwta/taking_part/html/russia.stm



RUSSIA



Vladimir Pozner

Channel 1's Vladimir Pozner presented the results of an exclusive poll about Russians' view of America as part of a unique BBC-led global television debate about the US's place in the world.



Here he reflects on anti-American sentiment in his country.





The general attitude of Russians towards America is clearly negative.



That is a significant change from Soviet times, when anti-Americanism was government policy, yet was not shared at grassroots level.



After the dissipation of the USSR, the overwhelming majority of Russians had a markedly pro-American outlook.



They felt confident that the US would initiate something akin to the Marshall Plan, thereby showing its support of democratic Russia.



Nothing of the sort occurred.



When life became increasingly difficult as a result of failed reforms and other factors, and more and more Russians sank into poverty, anti-American sentiment increased, and was immediately used by the communist and nationalistic parties.



The Nato bombing of Yugoslavia only served to exacerbate the situation, as its country and people - the Serbs - were seen by Russians as close in culture and religion, as they are all of Slav heritage.



With the election of US President George W Bush and the subsequent radical change in US policy, the unilateral approach to international issues was starkly demonstrated by the war in Iraq.



Russian public opinion vis-à-vis America dipped to a sub-zero temperature.



Super-power envy



That is how the situation stands today.



In my opinion, the above is only part of the reason for the growth of anti-Americanism in Russia.



I would add such psychological factors as envy, loss of super-power status, loss of self-respect, super-power aspirations that are clearly unrealistic, poverty and much more.



It should be said however that the present US administration bears much of the blame for the increasingly hostile attitude of Russia towards America.



Should the far-Right or far-Left ride back into power on anti-US coat tails, this could lead to a real disaster: let us not forget that Russia remains a nuclear super-power.

Cybernetic Organism (Organismo Cibernetico)

[Cybernetic Organism68]

Next up: UK



http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/programmes/wtwta/taking_part/html/uk.stm



UK



Andrew Marr

Andrew Marr, the BBC's political editor, presented a unique BBC-led global television debate about the US's place in the world. Here he explores the links, and divisions, between the UK and America.





Once upon a time the Americans were the British lost on the narrow lip of a distant continent, clutching their faith, songs, customs and memories.



They were 17th Century space travellers, cut off from Planet Europe with its corruptions and tyrannies.



Today, the British sometimes seem more like strayed Americans, islanders who speak American, watch American, eat American, and increasingly think American too.



Looking at us, a visiting anthropologist from Mars might conclude that we must be a tribe of migrants from Pennsylvania who ended up, for obscure reasons, squatting off France.



Almost all countries in the world are touched, in some way, by American power – Hollywood reaches deep into Asia and Russians eat Big Macs – but the British are more intensely soaked in US culture than anyone else, except the Canadians.



This is about language, first and foremost; though France, for instance, is heavily Americanised, the French language acts as a formidable buffer, as does German.



Multi-ethnicity

The second reason for the similarity is that Britain, like the US, is a fully multi-ethnic country.



British multi-ethnicity is different in history and tempo. It is not about a fresh slate but an old empire. As British Asians sometimes put it: "We're only over here because you were over there."



But the effect is to make the UK as open to cultural mingling and change as coastal America. London has more language communities and international business headquarters than New York. Manchester has even more Sikh taxi-drivers than Boston.



Third, of course, there is history. The US constitution is an idealised and codified reworking of British constitutional thinking.



American business practice grew from the commercial laws, property rights and trading customs of 18th Century London and Bristol.



For all these reasons, and lesser ones, modern Britain has been more open, more porous, to contemporary American power than rivals.



Class divide



Modern Britain is the Simpsons, 24, Friends, Starbucks, Amazon, Gap, the White Stripes and Michael Moore, along with the Commons, the Queen and Martin Amis.



There are class elements to this, since the posher British are likelier to feel themselves European, with their Italian holiday homes and raggedly idiomatic French, while the poorer, because they watch more telly, absorb more American programming and American food.



Where are the evangelical churches gaining ground in Britain? Among the poorer blacks and whites of the inner cities. But British-Americanism transcends class too.



The high-income political obsessives of Westminster hoover up the latest books on Clinton and Bush, watch "The West Wing" and speculate about Ari Fleischer's future.



Writers I know who cross the Atlantic like frantic petrels wryly describe themselves as "Nylons" (New Yorker-Londoners) or, more poetically, Atlanticans.



Dig below the surface similarities, and you find deeper ones – the shared interest in global policing, the more-similar-than-not business cultures, the high level of internet usage, the populations that will continue to grow as those of France, Germany and Italy fall.



Vive la difference?

But if British-Americanism is intense, it also offers an interesting lesson for the rest of the world: for the corollary seems to be an equally intense desire to assert a different identity too.



You find it in humour; in sport; in the monarchy (far stronger than most people would have predicted a decade ago).



You will see it in Britain's newspaper culture; in soap operas and the tone of British television news; in the mere existence of Radio 4, which is perhaps the most un-American act carried out daily in English; and in the generally far less religious atmosphere of modern Britain, a secular, indeed Godless place by American standards.



When British culture stands up to, or against, American culture, it is persistent and dogged.



Baseball has made no inroads. President Bush's born-again Methodism is met with blank disbelief, or amazed distaste.



In Britain, there is no issue deader than the death penalty. And what patriotism is to middle America, knowing self-deprecation is to middle Britain.



It is as if there is a complex, winding internal border in the mind of every British adult.



On the one side there is a shared American culture which enriches our lives. When, after September 11, the "Star-Spangled Banner" was played outside Buckingham Palace, or at the last night of the Proms, it was a family tribute.



But on the other side of that mental border is an untouched other, a way of feeling that is beyond the reach of Drs Kissinger or Seuss.



For the British it is impossible not to be American and intolerable to be only American.



It is a condition of self-division that may become universal.



This double-ness can be held in any head without pain, and indeed with great pleasure. The trick is understanding that, in a world which has America, any form of local purity is an impossible mirage.

Cybernetic Organism (Organismo Cibernetico)

[Cybernetic Organism68]

Next up: Brazil



http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/programmes/wtwta/taking_part/html/brazil.stm



BRAZIL



Renato Machado

TV Globo's Renato Machado presented the results of an exclusive poll about Brazilians' view of America as part of a unique BBC-led global television debate about the US's place in the world.



Here he reflects on the love-hate relationship his country has with the US.





Brazilians' feelings towards the United States have turned bitter, to say the least.



There has always been a stream of anti-Americanism running through Brazil's intelligentsia.



A double-sided sort of mistrust was fed through populist politics by the nationalist dictatorships which ruled most of Latin America through the 1980s.



But together with political malaise, an unabashed admiration of the American way of life also ran deep in people's minds.



Movies, jeans, music, comics and heroes formed a solid cultural block which eventually became a model for art and business.



The critical view of the US, shared by other nations, tends to confound the American Government and the American people, who in the end carry the blame for the Bush administration's foreign policy simplifications.



American empire?

Many think Americans agree with the Pentagon's view of the world. Or George W Bush's view, for that matter.



The "You are either with us or against us" syndrome has made things worse.



In other words, the war against Iraq deepened the perception of the United States as an empire which simply dictates its overwhelming economic and strategic interests, defying any diplomatic considerations, even if it meant running over the UN, as it did.



Few journalists and commentators stressed the international importance of getting rid of a ruthless dictator such as Saddam Hussein.



The existence of many cumbersome dictatorships on the United States' side, like Saudi Arabia and Egypt, to name a few, has made the argument pointless.



To say nothing of the fact that the reason for the war - weapons of mass destruction illegally possessed by Saddam Hussein's regime - is now little more than a cynical excuse.



Still, the cult of American values such as freedom and cultural glamour persist.



One wonders if consumer goods and Gwyneth Paltrow's charm at the Oscar extravaganza can by themselves turn the page on a damaged record.

Cybernetic Organism (Organismo Cibernetico)

[Cybernetic Organism68]

Next up: Canada



http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/programmes/wtwta/taking_part/html/canada.stm



CANADA



Peter Mansbridge

CBC's Peter Mansbridge presented the results of an exclusive poll about Canadians' view of America as part of a unique BBC-led global television debate about the US's place in the world.



Here he reflects on the close, though now strained, relationship his country has with the US.





Canada's relationship with the United States is like no other bilateral relationship in the world.



We grow up learning that we share the world's longest undefended border. Our economy is cemented to theirs. We are each other's largest trading partners.



We are inundated with their culture, since we have unfettered access to all their television networks, movies, magazines, and books.



Since a short war in 1812, we have been military allies. Our troops fought together in the World War 1, World War 2, and Korea.



Canadians were in the first Gulf War and the war in Yugoslavia.



On 11 September, 2001, the bonds of friendship were never stronger.



As American airspace was closed to all traffic, US planes flying home were diverted to Canada.



For several days, thousands of American passengers were cared for by Canadians, many of them in very small communities on our east coast.



War on terror



When US President George W Bush sent troops to fight terrorism in Afghanistan, Canadian troops went as well.



Four Canadians were killed in a "friendly fire" episode - the first Canadian combat deaths in 50 years.



But when George W Bush went to war this year with Saddam Hussein, Canada stayed out of the fighting.



The government said it wanted United Nations approval of any war, and it was opposed to war if the only goal was regime change.



The Prime Minister's press secretary was overheard calling the American President a "moron". A government member of parliament said she hated Americans and called them "bastards".



George W Bush cancelled a planned visit to the Canadian capital, Ottawa.



So right now, relations between our two governments are strained, to say the least.



Most Canadians recognise that we derive enormous benefit from living in peace beside the US.



Still, part of the Canadian character is to be hyper-sensitive about what our proximity means for our sovereignty.



As former prime minister Pierre Trudeau once said to Americans: "Living next to you is in some ways like sleeping with an elephant.



"No matter how friendly and even-tempered is the beast, if I can call it that, one is affected by every twitch and grunt."

Cybernetic Organism (Organismo Cibernetico)

[Cybernetic Organism68]

@#%$...



I just noticed this was from 2003.



Oh well.

Cybernetic Organism (Organismo Cibernetico)

[ans]

informative post nonetheless. good job!

[John D Ranger]

Well you are always the last to know cyberbebelala.

[Cybernetic Organism68]

Shut up, stupid.

Cybernetic Organism (Organismo Cibernetico)

[Data Thieves]

The BBC kisses the @#%$ of the government,

The BBC kisses the @#%$ of the government,



Dr David Kelly, Where are you now???

Dr David Kelly, Where are you now???



The BBC does not reflect the opinion of those living under british occupation.