"we" Americans

"The whole culture of wearing flags on our lapel and saying 'we' when referring to the United States and, even the 'shock and awe' of the initial stages, it was just too jubilant and just a little uncomfortable."

What a fascinating little slip! How deeply disturbing it is when Americans refer to the United States in a time of war as "we"!

I hear liberals refer to the United States as "this country" quite often, usually accompanied with an eye roll, as in: "Of course, in this country, we have to pay for our own health care." Or, "in this country people think it's 'unpatriotic' to call America an evil empire." The "in this country" thing makes it sound like some sort of accident or mistake that the speaker was born here. Woops got off the bus one country too early on the Northbound express!