ISWYM. I apologise for any implication that all Americans support the KKK.

I greatly appreciate that apology - as a kid, I was sent to the opposite end of
the country and dropped into a school right out of hell, where it was a normal
part of the routine for various other kids to press KKK literature and flyers
into my hands in the halls. I was horrified by the attitudes I saw and was
damn thankful that I didn't have to deal with that type of bigotry for very
long! The KKK are an abomination, just as the National Socialists were to
Germany or the Shining Path to South America. I think every country has some
reason to feel shame about their past - but I don't feel that we need to accept
that any of those groups are best represented by those organizations.

I
suppose I was trying to show how awful I think America's support for
terrorism was in the past, and how counter-productive it has turned out to
be in the present.

Agree. Some of the things our government has pulled over the years - such as
this months' rollback of the EPA regulations concerning our air quality (to
name one of a hundred things off the top of my head) - just plain makes me
sick. Unfortunately, just like all other citizens of the world, Americans end
up getting stuck with whatever governing group best "sold" itself in the last
election - meaning sometimes we have bonesmen and other times, boneheads,
driving the bus. We can only hope that our nation will continue making
progress toward perfecting democracy. It ain't always pretty, but it beats
Stalinism and several other methods of leadership.

Maybe there is a (slight) link between historical US
knee-jerk hatred and fear of all things left-wing, and the KKK's knee-jerk
hatred and fear of all black people.

Possible - I try to hate individuals (and only one at a time, as per mom's
instructions), not groups, so it is a foreign concept for me to hate anyone en
masse, with the exception of bigots in general.

I regret typing it that way though as
it actually dilutes the point I was trying to make, as well as any offence
caused to decent Americans.

That's appreciated. Not that I am a 'decent American'! LOL

However, I would have to add that for a country as capable of throwing its
weight around over a longish period, a lot of you seem to have pretty thin
skins!

True, but that has more to do with our leadership than the typical man on the
street. More than anything, folks here just hate to be identified by the
traits exhibited by a small percentage of losers, like most other countries
have to put up with as well. A good example is the recent unpleasantness of
the overt racist elected to public office in Austria - although he somehow won
the seat, it didn't suggest that the average Austrian agreed with his brand of
garbage. Same as here, basically.

v/r
Gordon