`Treats the war as if it is led by Clint Eastwood'.

I have just returned from America, a nation with a split personality and as politically divided as Iraq.

The caring side of the United States was shown in the lead story in The Sun newspaper in Washington State's Kitsap County.

Elderly Leonard and Jodi Brunk had moved north from California and, through cruel family circumstances, had found themselves on the verge of homelessness.

A chap at a local church heard of their plight and sent round a circular asking for help: within days they had been housed and been given everything from food to a car.

Yes, America has a huge heart.

But when it comes to the world outside, they get lost.

They are isolated from the rest of us by two oceans and the vast majority of its citizens have never travelled outside their own state, never mind the country.

And yet world affairs - terrorism and the war in Iraq - helped polarise public opinion in the recent Presidential election.

The divide between Republicans and Democrats remains deep and the wounds are unlikely to heal during the next four years. Bush has taken his slim majority as a mandate for right-wing policy. He has declared a wish to impose democracy wherever it might be needed.

Oil rich countries had better watch out.

Zimbabwe will be safe.

A Republican wrote to the local newspaper complaining about "whining" Democrats.

A Democrat declared the real axis of evil was Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld, who had "misled the American people about Iraq and into world isolation".

But informed opinion seems hard to come by among ordinary citizens. Television coverage treats the war as if it is being led by Clint Eastwood: it is all broad strokes and no fine detail.

When Americans get the human side of a story, they react - like they did to the plight of Leonard and Jodi Brunk.

But no-one seems to be telling them what is really happening in Iraq, or even Europe.

Many remain naive to the world outside. Diversity of information is limited in a land where there are no national newspapers. But maybe they will take more notice when - as many predict - Bush reintroduces the draft to boost military manpower.

The President denied he would do this in a pre-election pledge but not everyone believes him. He has also suggested American forces will be withdrawn from Iraq when democracy is imposed. It is a hint of sanity many grasp.

But when it comes to war in Eye-rack, Americans - and Britons - should remember what the Marx Brothers said: There ain't no sanity clause.