"People who see America as 'The Great Satan' often forget how, whatever the nation's faults, it is truly heaving with free debate. After his re-election in 2004, the public and media began turning against George W Bush with a ferocity which matched only their bewildering support for him previously. Every day newspapers revealed polls that were more damaging for the president. The bookshops were packed with anti-administration bestsellers. At number one was Fiasco by Thomas E Ricks, about, obviously, the war in Iraq. Nor are the shops just small political outlets. You could find 100 Ways America Is Screwing Up The World, Losing Our Democracy, How GWB Misleads America and dozens of similar titles even in major chain stores."