...while it's understandable that you're annoyed, 
by such mindless acts of nationalism (yes 
NATIONALISM, which is different from patriotism. 
It's a thin line, but waaaaay too many Americans 
have crossed it), you're perpetuating that we 
should be proud and blindly follow our country. 
The right to question one's country, which we 
SHOULD be doing right now since we ARE doing 
something WRONG (the number of Afghani civilians 
killed in our revenge is more than twice that 
killed in 9/11; and I had to look in a British 
newspaper to find that, because the number is not 
being published over here), is written into the 
Constitution. In fact, our country was STARTED 
because we wanted the right to QUESTION our 
government; to say that opposing our government 
is unpatriotic is a load of horse crap said by 
people who don't even have the time of day to 
THINK about what is happening. We're not an evil 
country, but we're doing an evil thing. Oh, and 
by the way, we're not a democracy...we're  
REPUBLIC. Just like China (Oh, no, 
Communists! ::sarcasm::).

  If everyone had taken the money they spent on 
flags and donated it to charity instead of buying 
useless colored nylon, THEN we would be doing 
something useful...but mindlessly following your 
country does no use. Fundamentally, as a country, 
we have problems, and 9/11 did not -erase- them.

Whoo, I bet THAT will get people riled up. Now, 
moving on...

...it should be stated that we, as Americans, 
aren't PROUD of our origins, but we are trying to 
move past it. We shouldn't be held responsible 
for something that none of us today would do; 
also, it should be noted that almost ALL OF 
EUROPE had an "invasion" system; every European 
race at one point invaded and stole the land of 
others. It happened more in Europe than in 
America; people had a different system back than. 
But, of course, it's our fault; are you still 
going to hold modern day Germany responsible for 
the actions of Hitler and the Nazis? Slavery 
existed in all parts of the world, and people had 
been stealing land long before we did; what do 
you think conquistadors DID, planted seeds? If 
we're all to be at fault for the past, then the 
world should be held on trial; every country has 
it's murky and shading history. Ours is just 
painted neon and shoved in our faces.

Ahhh, well. We do have a lot of problems as a 
country, and other countries have the right to 
show these problems to us; just don't forget to 
handle YOUR OWN as well. It's always easy to 
criticize others.

  Also, please don't bother getting into a debate 
with me on this; I'm really not in the mood. I'm 
all for hearing diverse points of view, but only 
in the right context. This is not targeted 
towards anyone; simply my -opinion-, and as such 
you don't have to agree or even like it, but you 
do have to respect it.

-Misha,