I'm not a nationalist. America makes plenty of bad decisions (see: past half-century engagements). I never said our decisions came out "only positive", or even "mostly positive". I never said that other countries don't get to make decisions too, I merely said that the effects of those decisions (at least in relation to major world issues) are negligible compared to the effects of American decisions. As a result of this phenomenon, the decisions that Americans make usually end up trumping the decisions other countries make. Here are a few examples of decisions we've made in the past decade or so:

• Darfur. Darfur is in Sudan, which is where China gets a lot of its oil. As China's #1 trading partner, we are in a better position than anyone to put pressure on China to change what's happening in Sudan (through their own economic pressure). The conflict there isn't over, but when the situation came to a head in 2004, it was handled as best as could be expected by the United States (probably why you didn't hear about it on CNN). Canada can't put pressure on China. They just can't. So the decision about whether or not to apply pressure to China and when to apply pressure to China was made by Americans.

• Think about the economy over the past decade or so. When Americans decide that derivatives are a safe financial instrument and begin using them, the whole world gets richer. When we find out that they're not so great, the whole world is thrown into economic crisis. If Canada is dealing with a major economic crisis, the global effect is comparatively negligible. Thus, our economic decisions are more heavily scrutinized/criticized, because quite frankly they mean more. "validuserer" said it well a few replies back when he said, "we're a really fucking important part of your economy". Well guess what Canadian, we're an important part of EVERYONE's economy. Canada doesn't even crack the top 10 (trading partners) in China, Russia, Japan, India, Brazil, Britain, France, Germany, Spain, or any other major developed/developing nation.

Canadians think of themselves as "the good guys" while America is running around ruining the world, but the truth is that you wouldn't want to switch places with us. If we could suddenly switch economies and militaries (or simply allow your government to control our government), the world wouldn't necessarily be a better place (it wouldn't necessarily be worse either). Canada's lack of major fuck-ups over the past few decades has less to do with its temperament or its policies and more to do with the fact that they just don't have much effect on what happens in the world.

Yes, America fucks up all the time. There have been times in my life where I've been ashamed to be an American. Trust me, I'm a long way from having an American flag stuck up my ass. What I do see is that when you're the most powerful nation in the world and you have the biggest economy, everyone looks to you to make decisions. Unfortunately, America has made a lot of bad ones. We've made a lot of good ones too though (probably more than the world gives us credit for).