When back in 1957 I was born, Germany long had overcome the post World War II period and entered the "Wirtschaftwunder" - a period of extraordinary economic prosperity and wealth. A sigh of relief had gone through the country and people were looking hopefully into the future - history did not happen. All I learned at that time of America - it always was America, never the USA - was that they had liberated us. The necessity of being liberated also implied that we had been kept prisoner as a people by someone called Hitler and his villains, the Nazis. Following this line anyone could have a somewhat misty but irrefutable proof of innocence. "This Hitler" was to blame...

The Americans I knew then had their firm place on the TV screen and when Ben Cartwright solved the Ponderosa's problems he became the Super father for me and his sons were how I saw Americans. After reading Uncle Tom's Cabin I knew for certain that the Americans were fighting for freedom and liberty because they had long overcome this barbaric stage and were well ahead of us Germans, who had murdered millions of people. Flipper taught me that America was much more beautiful and exciting than anything I could think of in Germany and that I instantly would change my identity - if only I could. The world was simple, the world was easy and every single problem could be solved perfectly the American Way. I was sure brought up to like America. And I loved you.

My admiration lingered on 'till "Hair" reached the provincial town of my homeland in 1971 and even grew: I didn't know much about Vietnam and didn't care, but I sure loved the hair-style and the way my folks reacted to it. And of course - it came from my beloved America! I got older and listening to Chancellor Willi Brandt somehow rang the bell - he was the first German politician who really admitted - and did so publicly - that we had a history. It was a time when people talked about My Lai and Nixon and Vietnam. And I started wondering: Could it really be true that Ben Cartwright had ordered Adam, Hoss and Little Joe to commit a burglary and violate the American Constitution? I was too young to be a true Woodstock child, but early enough around to listen to American Singer-Song-Writers like Joan Baez, Bob Dylan or Pete Seger. I read Gabriel Garcia Marquez's "One Hundred Years of Solitude", Upton Sinclair's "Jungle" and of course Dashiell Hammett and America and his inhabitants became quite normal people with very humane and selfish interests, just like everybody else I knew: I quite liked them. Really.

Then there was this Peanut farmer. We got the information that only half of the American nation had voted and Jimmy Carter got less than 30% of the electorate. So I started to wonder about the American democracy.

In the 1980s the USA were ruled by an actor, who liked to knock off early and turned out to be a very likable, yes even lovable hypocrite. I liked the reruns of his films and deemed his political views to be somewhat right of Genghis Khan's. But anyway - I was preoccupied with my being a twen and the hoaxes repetitiously performed by "The Pear" (the fruit, not the British noble) , "Birne", as we called Chancellor Kohl. We had plenty to laugh about ourselves...

The in-between-Bush I only noticed because he succeeded in collecting quite a lot of dough from "Birne" for liberating a country that successfully and verifiably had stolen oil from Iraq. He - for me - surprisingly lost the re-election - hadn't he won a war? For freedom and... Nope. Not for democracy. Kuwait still isn't a democracy.

His successor unfortunately will always be remembered for his inability to properly report to the American people on his preferred way of keeping his cigars and refining skillfully the definitions both of sex and smoking pot. The American Nation sacrificed a great president on a very private matter. You will not find many in Europe who share this attitude. We were interested in the fuss you made about it, not in where Clinton advised his Comrade Johnny Baldhead to pay a visit. I could have turned completely to Europe then if it hadn't been for the trifle of nuclear bombs and strategic missiles all around the globe. Bill Clinton was well liked in Europe not least for his intervention in former Yugoslavia, thus demonstrating to Europeans that they - 50 years after Word War II - still weren't able to sweep their own yard.

His successor, "the man, who stole the presidency" (Tim Sebastian, BBC) "an autocrat, not a democrat" (late Sir Peter Ustinov) now obscures the view on your splendid nation. He is the ugly face for those who want to give America an ugly face, and he and his administration are an almost insurmountable obstacle to those who still love your country.

The Bush administration stands for arrogance, incompetence, aggression, propaganda, lies, bigotry, contempt for Human Rights, Civil Rights and both American and International law. When I think of America today I see an administration that has no respect or regard for sovereign nations. Ben Cartwright has turned into Darth Vader, or as I read prior to the second Iraq war on a banner shown on CNN: "Frodo failed: Bush's got the Ring!" You can live anywhere in the world and must be aware that you - like it or not - are invited by the CIA to join them on a free flight to a surprise country - group dynamic sessions with sincere interest in your life, personal history and friends included.

When the pictures of Abu Ghraib found their way into public, the Bush administration could be heard saying that they never claimed to be perfect, but that the world should see how a democracy would treat these incidences. Oh well, yes we saw: Lindsay England was responsible for all and alone - no further inquiry needed - all laid out plain. And more: "Chief Warrant Officer Lewis Welshofer Jr was convicted last week of the negligent homicide of Maj Gen Abed Hamed Mowhoush in 2003" (BBC, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4642596.stm) The man had put the head of an Iraqi human being into a sleeping bag and sat on his chest while the Iraqi suffocated to death. Now the poor Officer who at least found his true family will have to pay a fine of $6.000,- and won't be allowed to leave his base for 60 days. The audience in the court room is reported to have been applauding...

And there's this George W. who says, if the International Court of Justice, ICJ, if Den Hag dares to indict an American Citizen he will use force to free them... This attitude is propagated in the numerous TV- serials that make their way over the ocean. Be it that arrested people asking for a lawyer are kindly informed: there will be plenty of time for the legal stuff later on and a lawyer could not understand the way help is furthered without him. Or we're confronted with criminals that are known to be guilty - we saw them commit the crime - and yet cannot be tried because of some missing legal formality like a search warrant. Yes, we watch 24 over here - it's the fourth season now, I believe, and we are getting used to proven guilty culprits threatening to blast all American Nuclear plants and hiding information. We must save lives. And of course: one cannot take into consideration the rights of those unwilling to cooperate .

Torture is clean in 24. You don't see naked bodies chained into extreme postures, there's no blood, no sweat, no feces, no urine or to spell it plainly: no one is beating the shit out of anyone, no breaking bones, no smashed faces, bursting jaws, no "real damage" - at least not until Jack Bauer arrives. The torturer is no offspring of Dante's Inferno or the Roman-Catholic Inquisition. No he's a well trained and well clad and well known specialist. He uses "clean" undetectable methods as sensory deprivation, drugs and tasers. There may be some "unpleasant time" but afterwards the victims simply get up and walk home or continue to work: maybe they sulk a little. But why? They have been treated as humanely as anyone camping under the free sky in the American Holiday Paradise for forcefully retired terrorists, sorry, "unlawful combatants", Guantanamo Bay, close to Florida, isn't it?

The National Security is the Alpha and Omega, the one single true cause, that justifies ANY THING. It also heals everything and turns right what seemed wrongly wrong.

And we are given a real example of American heroism, when the Secretary orders his son to be tortured: "Yes, you are my son, but I have sworn to protect this country." And anyway: why does he insist on a private life? If National Security wants to know, all of us around the whole globe have to answer "proactively". We humbly learn: if the War on Terror is to be won we must sacrifice ourselves and our flesh and blood on the altar of National Security.

This attitude is not confined to you, America, my Love.

In Frankfurt, the Chief of Police threatened a detainee with torture: yes - he had his trial and was not really acquitted but given a minor suspended sentence and moved to a new post for the time being. Some two weeks ago, the German Home Secretary announced he would use any information, even if it were the result of torture. The Schröder-Administration openly attacked George W on Iraq but the Secret Service, the BND (Federal Information Agency) supplied the Bush-Administration with ground information on targets in Baghdad. And of course: the German government will allow the Bush-Admin to use their bases in Germany for whatever purpose it sees fit.. The Bush administration asks for supremacy and hegemony guided by the one doctrine: "What is good for America, is good for the world." There also is an easily understood division among those "who are for you" and those "who are against you". You belong to the latter if you don't prove you belong to the first. You prove to belong to the first by following your "enlightened" leader blindly who only answers to a higher father than his Dad.

If there's anything in the way of the US-Bush national interest, the rest of some 7 billion people minus 260 million Americans have to realize that their minor needs unfortunately cannot be considered I'm not going to bore anyone with endless numbers and columns: and also it would be European hypocrisy: yes - Americans are consuming more than their share of resources and they don't appear to give a damn about it, and, yes: Europe is doing just the very same. The so called "developed" world is about to realize that the 6 billion humans not living here with us also want their fair share. It's all about finding one's place amongst the many nations on Planet Earth.

This attitude "Me first" is spreading in the Western hemisphere and we somehow are astounded by the fact that those other 6 billion human beings are fathers and mothers, sons and daughters. They care for their children and folks just as we do for ours. If we do not comprehend that there's only ONE EARTH and ONE HUMANITY, we shall not survive.

What would Ben Cartwright have done? If he were to be the next president of the USA he'd gather all the world's leader on the Ponderosa to come up with a plan to lead a merciless war against unemployment, poverty, bad-healthcare, illiteracy, bad-education, inadequate water supply, hunger, aids and the destruction of God's creation: the home land to all of us - Planet Earth.

Former German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt was asked why he thought America was so far ahead of so many nations in so many aspects? He pointed to the fact that only the best of Europe and the World had made their way to America, the people who had an ideal they wanted to live and fight for, the courage to expect a dream to become true and the strength and perseverance not to stop before the Ideal of True Freedom and Justice becomes a living reality to all the people. In this crusade, America, will you be the first to go so we can follow?