Everything Germans do, say and think is influenced by fear (ANGST). Fear of the future, fear of war, fear of unemployment. Germans (especially East Germans) feel under siege from the global economy (spearheaded by US and British economic models, which they feel undermine their ubiquitious welfare state. America-bashing is a nice little distraction from the country's problems. Let's not gloat too much, though - the East Germans have gone through a major shock and are reeling from the devastation of reunification - far harsher then the limited damage of something like 9-11. The tables could turn sooner than we think. In the 1980s West Germany outperformed the US economically. Things change fast.

all this video shows is the incredibly low level of debate in the US. This "Warrant Officer"'s job is apparently to film positive propaganda for the military. Funny how right-wing whackos are paranoid about big government and state intervention, but not when it's on the part of the noble military - in this case represented by a semi-literate "journalist in uniform" and his white trash wife. Just reminds me of how happy I am to have moved away from that country after living there for nearly 20 years.