First of all, I did not want to hurt anyone's feelings. I know that many people circle the wagons when "their" country is criticised. Understand that no common citizen anywhere is a full citizen, unless you're extremely wealthy, connected or borne to power. Some here have said that those critical of the USA "don't know what they are talking about". I suspect the reverse is true, but the idea is not to criticise any one country or party. It's the racism and inhumanity that angers me.

I am infatuated with Americans. They are, as a whole, much better than Europeans and Canadians. I have to tell you that any country which deliberately doesn't protect its own citizens against itself or other countries does not deserve to be. Case in point: Omar Khadr, a child, who Harper won't bring home. I am far more critical of "my" own country. And "our" bloody PM.

But the majority of Americans have abdicated their responsibilties. You now more than ever live in a horrifying police state. Instead of hope, you export repression. That your lives now are untouched by the state apparatchiks doesn't mean that this will always be. Each year, HRW and Amnesty issue condemnations of the US prison system - inside the US, but Washington defies this! Check youtube for police brutality videos - who do you think is making things up? By acquiescing to state control, you're endorsing it. By silently thinking that it's fine for an unarmed black man to be shot dead in New York, you're saying that it will never happen to a middle-class white man in Alabama. But it will. History shows us that the appetite of the men behind the curtains and the state is large. Remember, Germany was an enlightened free society before they decided to give up some freedom for some security, and for some vengeance. The brutality was far away, perhaps first affected only the Jews (today it's the Muslims and other off-whites). The others were evil, hurray for our side! I think the worst Nazis would be proud of Guantanamo, Bagram, Deigo Garcia, and other such "sites" in and out of the US. The truth is not on TV. Don't you ever notice the harmony of all news sources, the coincidences that guide voter opinion?

Remember that everyone, everywhere, despite background or circumstance deserves life, liberty, respect and civil (not military) due process. I know that these ideas are misplaced on a forum mostly used by young men, who think they know everything and actually are silly enough to salute the flag or some other myth. But no matter how times change, young men are a powerful force in any society. Society fears you, admires and respects you. You can change the world. But if you're held captive by failed ideas, by the same old pack of lies, by the easy spoon feeding of disinformation, good luck!

Therefore, I don't consider my (mild) criticism of a country or a war or a gulag to be controversial. It is strange that the self-proclaimed defenders of free speech are trying to silence me. Shouldn't you celebrate my rights, the rights you or your forebears allegedly gifted to me?

But my original comment was off topic. I did not mean to be disruptive. We are all, regardless of differences, one family of man. Let us not be "bitter".