Is America, Really as bad as people say? Options

[CrazayChristian]

I know, I'm an American, why am I asking this?

Well, I've heard both sides of the story, and I still don't see why people dislike America.

I came across this topic:

Click

And I realized that there must be some sort of prejudice involved.

In my opinion, we are doing alot already. We actually have more troups in the yugoslavian area than Iraq, and I think we lose more people there than Iraq. We have troups there to help stifle the fighting.
We have troups in Iraq so that we can help them to defend themselves.
We are the big brother of Isreal.

And yes we've had some bad moments, such as the bikini Islands. But, you're expected to make mistakes. Look at how the European powers did hundreds of years ago.

Some people blame the president for the problems, but put yourself in his shoes, to control the most powerful country in the world and try to make everyone happy. It just doesn't always work out.

So, I'm wondering, why do certain people (almost entire countries) dislike America?

(I'm curious about my facts, and I figured debate would be the best way to discuss diffrent sides)

[*mipadi*]

I don't think America is that bad of a place, and a lot of Americans are good, honest people who really do want to make the world a better place. Right now, I have a few concerns about the American government, but the country itself. By biggest concern is with things like Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib. To turn on the news and see America torturing prisoners, or locking up men in a jail without trial for over three years, is disillusioning. We're not like that--that's not what we do in America. We're supposed to be honorable, and uphold justice, even for our enemies. One senator recently put it best, when she said something like, "If America is going to be the good guys, we need to act like the good guys." We haven't always been acting like the good guys in the past few years.

America is also rather arrogant at times. We refuse to support the Kyoto treaty, because for some reason we feel that we shouldn't have to help lower air pollution. We snub the UN (except when the UN acts in our favor), and we refused to allow American military personnel to be subject to international law.

At home, we currently have an administration who seems to be more focused on furthering Catholic political agendas than listening to the will of Americans as a whole.

Aside from a few problems with the US government, though, I don't think America, or Americans as a whole, are as bad as a lot of people say. I love America and think it's a wonderful country, except for a few (albeit big) things with which I take issue.