OK, lifted straight from one of our daily newspapers.......

"The superpowers image has been battered during the George Bush years.
The shambolic election in 2000 injected poison into the boastful
democracy. A proud military tradition was diminished by a disastrous
invasion of Iraq, squandering the great outpourings of global sympathy
after the September 11 attacks. America's legal heritage was debased
by prison horrors in Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay, while Washington's
dismal response to hurricane Katrina only served to compound opinion
polls showing global respect for Americans at near record lows."

This is the face you present to the world, this is what you are judged
on. I am sad that it is so, you are capable of so much more than this.

Andrew VK3BFA.