For those of you that think my recent posts have a distinctly ant-American slant you'd be right.  I have dual citizenship (US and Australian), neither of which I'm particularly happy about travelling around the world with as I believe they both expose me to an unnecesarily high risk of danger, and I'm just plain embarrassed to be associated with either government for their current policies and behaviour.  However when I look back at the modern history of the US I'm more apalled by it than that of Australia (not that the Aussies haven't done some equally horrific things and been just as culpable, especially considering how hard Little Johhny is sucking Uncle George's dick at the moment).  From segregation and entrenched racism in the South (where my family is from), to the Vietnam war, to the support of drug cartels in Afghanistan and SouthAmerica by the CIA, to the rigging of the election that put George Bush Jnr into power and his subsequent invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan and the murders of tens of thousands of innocent civillians by US soldiers there, to the unchecked and fanatical propogation of capitalism, free trade and World Bank lending (with subsequent deleterious effects on the economies of so many smaller nations) as well as the damage that the ingrained consumer culture has on the health of its citizens and the environment - I am against all of these things.  The presidents of the United States (past and present) have whole-heartedly sanctioned these things. So in that respect yes, I am anti-American.  Here's a quote from We Arundhati Roy that fairly accurately sums up why I think being anti-American isn't such a bad thing:

The term "anti-American" is usually used by the American establishment to discredit and - not falsely, but shall we say inaccurately - define its critics. Once someone is branded anti-American, chances are that he or she will be judged before they're heard and the argument will be lost in the welter of bruised national pride. What does "anti-American" mean? This sly conflation of America's culture, music, literature, the breathtaking physical beauty of the land, the ordinary pleasures of ordinary people with criticism of the U.S. government's foreign policy (about which, thanks to America's "free press," sadly, most Americans know very little) is a deliberate and extremely effective strategy. There are many Americans who would be mortified to be associated with their government's policies. ("War Talk", 48-49)

So there you have it.  Not sure if I've commited treason by writing this but it's how I feel, and I suppose I'll have big fucking brother knocking on my door and taking me away to Guantanamo Bay in a Blackhawk helicopter soon...

Oh, and before any of you patriotic Americans decide to write me a nasty reply, look at this first.  If you can, in point form preferably, justify the death of every single one of the 40+ thousand civillian lives in your reply I'd be most appreciative.