Hi Len, please see inline comments...
>I think I agree with the majority of your sentiments, though some of your comments do lead me to wonder about the quality of news reporting in your country.

Well, for all our (Americans) concern about freedom of the press, our news has and will always be slanted towards the best 'political' interests of our country. On the whole, I believe we get great news with mostly impartial reporting, but that doesn't mean that we Americans take the time to fully digest the information. I am guilty of watching/reading the news when it suits me. Every morning I watch the news on 3 different channels, but I get to the point where 'enough is enough' and I filter out a lot until something catches my attention. I also don't always take the time to follow through on stories, even those I have an interest in.

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>Another question, with your government openly talking about a pre-emptive strike on Iraq & sanctioning the CIA to assassinate Saddam Hussein, would it be acceptable for Iraq to launch a pre-emptive strike on the US in self-defence ? How would your country react if the leader of another country publicised that it was second out agents to assassinate the President, is it unreasonable for other countries to act in a similar manner ?

I think many Americans (myself included) are amazed at this development. Given that the U.S. has been guilty throughout history of disposing of foreign leaders, it has always been done 'underhanded' so to speak. We KNOW it happens, but we DON'T want to hear about it. NOT EVEN WHEN OUR COUNTRY IS DIRECTLY AT WAR WITH THE FOREIGN COUNTRY. It has always been the U.S. government's position to NOT sanction any such action. President Bush (Senior) elected NOT to seek out and dispose of Saddam Hussein during the Golf War due mostly in part to public sentiments. In fact, some have been called to the floor for it in past congressional hearings. Anyway, regardless of the truly amazing information being leaked out (intentionally we think, perhaps to gage the public's feelings on the matter?), I don't feel a pre-emptive strike against a COUNTRY because a leader is targeted is warranted, anymore than I feel that the U.S. should conduct a pre-emptive attack on any other COUNTRY if our President Bush was targeted. Do we punish the people for the actions of the leader? Yes we do and have many times throughout history, but that does not make it the right thing to do. That is one of the actions that must come to a stop. Given the reality that while one may vote for a political leader and yet once in office, the decisions made by that leader may reflect the voter's opinions only 20% of the time (at best), the public cannot be entirely responsible for the actions of its leader as a whole. Yet, it IS up to the people to ensure the judicial system hands out discipline though to its leaders when they step too far out of bounds. I am truly amazed that the information leaked out to begin with and wondering what the administration hopes to accomplish. I am also amazed that the public (American) has not cried out in response to so violent and yes terrorist an act. While many would like to see Saddam Hussein deposed personally, I don't know ANYONE that would condone an act of murder. When it comes to foreign government 'leaders' that are a threat to the U.S. in any way, our country has typically PUBLICLY supported foreign anti-government groups to accomplish our political goals but not condoned out-right murder. Yet we have bankrolled such actions in the past but NEVER informed the public either before or after. The U.S. tends to want someone else to do our dirty work for us. I suspect (probably wrongly) that whoever leaked this information got wind of it and let the information out hoping that public cries of injustice would prevent such an act from occurring in the end.

Tracy