8. John needs to recall John Kerry and his rejection after he claimed Hollywood was the heart and soul of America. US citizens know it isn't and to claim they are anything other than propagandists is stupid and Americans and the world know that. John such comment is really shallow.
9. Suggesting populism will emerge in the future is silly. It emerged with the election of OBama. He is nothing but populist. The US electorate expected him to change things. He was elected on the platform of such reform. It is proving to be totally populist. US is still in Iraq and will stay there. Torture has not been outlawed. It is still statutory active in US law. G'itmo is still open, health care hasn't been reformed, along with all those other things that 'terrible' Bush introduced or used ...with the approval of the still dominated democrat congress.... Obama's populist’s nature is now reflected in US polling where his approval is now below 50% far lower than 'terrible' George at a similar point in either of his 2 terms.

10. To expect Obama to change things is not realist and cannot be blamed on his subordinates. The currently mighty US buck stops with him.
11 While he claims Americanism is rooted in 'women’s suffrage, the eight-hour day, graduated income tax and public ownership' he ignores these things also apply in other countries and often originated prior to their advent in the US. John doesn't cast the same aspersions on these other countries.
12. Anti Americanism is not what John and others portray. US citizens when they change things are the epitome of not anti-American but of the American Dream. I cannot think of anywhere in the world where these actions wouldn't be loved and embraced ... including the US.

Sorry John I think you've allowed some socialist idea to produce bias here and you must acknowledge the US government is always the will of the US people.

david f,

I agree that there's no way of knowing whether the quote is genuine,however it is accurate!

Keith is good at moral/ethical equivocation.It is alright to take the spoils of war even under the false pretense of freeing people from what we perceive to be tyranny.It is alright then to take the oil in Iraq after invading them on false pretenses.

The corporates now control the USA and Obama is just their puppet.Clinton and even Bush did not want to go into Pakistan.Now Obama is there doing the unthinkable.Obama was going to rescind the Patriot Act but now refuses.

The War on Terror is just a ruse for the USA to expand it's empire.

What Pilger and his ilk never accept is:

the sort of left wing despotism, which he and the other ratbags who attend functions like "Socialism 2009" surreptitiously endorse, would not allow him to speak out against the government in the way he badmouths USA...

In the leftwing "workers utopia" he would have been lead away to a psychiatyric unit for re-education or worse.

Potty mouth Pilger is the architypical malcontent, happy to accept the kudos of his western economic sponsored position of privilege and even happier to bite the hand which feeds him.

Hypocrisy comes in many forms..

Pilger is just another one of them.

On reflection Pilger's attitude to Obama in connecting him with all the past misdeeds of the United States is like blaming Angela Merkel for Hitler.

It is not OK to hate Aborigines, Muslims, Jews, homosexuals or any of the other usual targets of bigotry. It is also not OK to hate the United States. The United Nations and other international organisations which now condemn the United States would not exist had it not been for the United States. The United States populated mainly by white Protestants has elected a black president and a Catholic vice president.

As the only superpower in today's world the United States has stepped on a lot of toes. However, its opponents for the big banana have been Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia. In my opinion they would be a lot worse. The United States is far from perfection, but I think it is about as good as you can reasonably expect for the sole superpower.

What I find most entertaining about reactions to Pilger's work is that despite the frequent howls of bias and hypocrisy, nobody ever seems to challenge him on the facts themselves.

It may be nothing more than gratuitous criticism to many but that doesn't mean it can't be true, no matter how much you don't want to hear it.

How much "balance" does it take to make a wrong into a right?

Historically, America is a nation addicted to war - both economically and socially, from it's "Manifest Destiny" origins through the Cold War and up to the New World Order.

Should they have the right to control the destiny of other countries for their own profit? Should their miltary complex (which takes about half of every tax dollar) be allowed to hold controlling shares in their popular media corporations?