I would love to get this man's phone number or email address so I could call him and teach him a few things about the issues he evidently don't have a clue about. It's not just that I disagree with what he's saying (although obviously I do, strongly disagree), as that I feel like he's speaking without knowing the facts.
To start with, who is he to define what is American or unAmerican? I live in the UK, I've lived most of my life and yet I certainly wouldn't claim to be able to define what is 'British'. Who is he to judge the actions of someone he's never met? Did he personally ask Bono why he wore a jacket with an American flag? No - so how can he possibly know what his motivation for that way?
And finally, this is the part that really pisses me off. His comments about debt relief only show that he has no understanding of the issue. He suggests that U2 give money to the countries as "debt relief". Well, the whole idea of debt relief is that it can only be given by those the debt is owed to. Suggesting that people instead give money to poorer countries doesn't solve the underlying problem. If the poorest countries are paying back $59million every week to the richest countries, then no amount of charitable donations will solve the problem. The idea is to work with those countries so they don't need aid from other countries - if they weren't spending a huge percentage of their GDP on debt service they could spend that money on health care, education, which would in turn allow them to improve their economies in order to better fund those services. If they were able to trade with rich countries on fair terms they would be less dependent on foreign aid. Not to mention the fact that ridiculously high debt repayments aren't the only way the IMF and World Bank have hurt these countries - they're the ones who force countries to cut government spending, so they can't fund education, so they can't provide food subsidies even where they are the only way people can afford to eat, so they can't provide healthcare to the millions of people dying from treatable diseases, so they can't implement any measures which might be able to get their country out of desperate poverty.
So that, Mr Willis, is what I would like to tell you. And sadly you'll never read this. And sadly people who already know this inside out will. Sorry guys