As someone has already said, empires rise and fall. One of the first signs of weakness is when a country thinks it is so powerful that it can do what it wants. I think the US has stood for lots of good things in the past and has helped a lot of countries but Guantanamo, for example, lessens its moral authority. The war in Iraq seemed to be a knee jerk reaction. They had to nail some bad guy (with the right ethnic and/or religious background) whether he had anything to do with 9/11 or not. You expect things like this from a totalitarian government, not from the US. They would have been a lot better off concentrating on Afghanistan where they could have made a real difference.  \n\nHowever, if the US works more closely with other countries which, by the way, have had democracy for as long or longer, they will do a lot better than following the adage "my way or highway". As a great admirer of Roosevelt and Lincoln I can only shake my head in dismay when I think of the commander in chief you have now. The sooner he goes, the quicker the US will make ammends. By the way, I am no admirer of the Democrats. I just like people in charge who know what they are doing.