America is the perfectly flawed hero: Overwhelmingly powerful and rich, yet full of doubt and self-hate.

Nowhere is this more obvious when seeing opinions on the war on terror where people continually condemn the United States as they continually give terrorists the benefit of the doubt. It has happened over and over again during this war. The pinnacle of this was when people condemned President Bush for the death of innocent people during the invasion and ongoing occupation of Iraq yet had no feeling for all those who died and were oppressed by Saddam Hussein’s regime.

The most recent example comes from the reaction by many to a report from the Red Cross alleging treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay that is “tantamount to torture.” Many have again cried out about how the United States is no better than the ones we are fighting, even going so far to say that the terrorists have the moral high ground since they are defending themselves from imperialism.

Here again we see people jumping on the idea that the United States is evil without any real skeptical look at the allegations. The first question everyone should ask is: How does the Red Cross define torture? When I think of torture, I think of thumb screws, the rack, knives; you know, S&M-like stuff. Is that what we’re doing at Guantanamo Bay? The answer from the Red Cross would be absolutely no.

The Red Cross’ definition seems to broaden that of torture to include what one might expect in a police interrogation of a criminal. They report “humiliating acts, solitary confinements, temperature extremes [and] use of forced positions.”

“Temperature extremes” is a good one. In Guantanamo Bay, that may consist of a lack of air conditioning, for all we know. Yet, people refuse to question this supposedly confidential report and automatically assume that a wide range of abuses is taking place.

To them, this is just further evidence that the United States has no moral high ground. But of course, any one that knows anything about the Middle East knows that real torture is commonly used there. Not simple changes in temperature — we’re talking really painful treatment invented by sadists.

So just imagine if the United States were using torture devices like the Black Slave, which is notorious in the Mideast, at Guantanamo Bay. All those peacenik U.S. haters out there who don’t know what a Black Slave is can look it up. Consider it the beginning of your real education.

Even in this highly unlikely worse-case scenario, we would still be better than our enemies since we refrain from videotaping the beheading of innocents.This gets to the root of the problem with those that continually hate the United States — a fundamental ignorance of how crappy the rest of the world is.

I remember in my early days learning about the terrible internment camps that the United States set up for the Japanese Americans during World War II and having to read the truly disturbing recount of the bombing of Hiroshima. There was no mention about how the Japanese Empire used biological warfare to kill untold numbers of Chinese or how the Japanese conducted experiments on Manchurians. This completely went against the idea that the conquerors will rewrite history in their favor, and it leaves little doubt in my mind on why some people hate America.

It’s time people realize that while we aren’t perfect, we’re the best the world has got at the present. We are actually the “good” side and they are the “bad” side. There may be some shades of gray but not nearly enough to confuse the two.