Here's a Confession I Must Make: Ich Bin Ein American

Summary

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Iam a jelly doughnut. Or so President John F Kennedy unwittingly declared in 1961 when he said: "Ich bin ein Berliner," intending to express solidarity with the people of the city. Well, as America recovers from this shocking election, I'm inclined to say that I am a Hamburger, or perhaps a Dunkin' Donut.

For I have a confession to make: I am in love with America. It is not mere infatuation, but a deep-seated, emotionally-charged devotion which I am powerless to dispel. All the more so since it crept upon me over a lifetime spent denouncing the US as a delinquent military superpower. But my affection for America is not to do with politics, and in many ways is - like love - essentially irrational.

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Extract

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Here's a Confession I Must Make: Ich Bin Ein American

Now, this might puzzle readers of this column - particularly the many Americans who seem to read it (in the past year I've had almost as many e-mails from the US as from Scotland). For, like most Europeans, I have been horrified, sickened, bemused by the war in Iraq. But what I find confirmed in my inbox ...

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